Sonic 3 & Knuckles
by GuGoomba
Summary: Sonic and Tails take the Tornado out on a test flight, only to find an island suspended in the sky. Join them as they explore Floating Island while fighting off Robotnik, Metal Sonic, and Knuckles the Echidna.
1. Angel Island

Island in a Sea of Clouds 

All Sonic the Hedgehog characters are copyrights of SEGA, DIC, and Archie Comics. Silver the Hedgehog is copyrighted by me. 

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Sonic adapt, which is based after the Sonic 3 and Knuckles game for Genesis. Metal Sonic takes the place of Robotnik being the one to trick Knuckles initially. I also decided to start calling Metal Sonic by the name Mecha part of the time when talking about him. (It just sounds better than Metal) I'm using a few elements from NetRaptor's story S3&K. Like the fact that the red Chaos Emerald becomes super hot when separated from the green emerald. And the fact that the emeralds split up when they are given to someone who shouldn't have them when the green emerald is missing. There will likely be more things that are similar or taken from NetRaptor's story later on, so I just want to say now that anything I do take that is her idea, it is copyrighted by her. 

Story Note: This story takes place approximately 1 year after the events in "A new Enemy, A New Ally". The Freedom Fighters have gathered all the chaos emeralds, even the one Robotnik had, but Shadow's vision of destruction still remains. I might put in the stories regarding the collecting of the emeralds later on, but I wanted to get to the good stuff. Only Angel Island will be split into it's two acts on account of the prologue taking up a good portion of the first chapter. All other chapters (Zones) will be written as though the two acts are combined into one. 

The 1st person Point Of View is Knuckles, who is recalling his memories of what happened with some regret to what he did. 

**Sonic 3 & Knuckles**

**Chapter 1**

Prologue 

Today's a lovely spring morning in Knothole as the sun rises above the tree line, sending its warm glow streaming through the forest. There have been a lot of changes to the small village in the last year. The first of which was the return of Robotnik, who unleashed a new robot version of Sonic, called Metal Sonic. Another was their two newest recruits, Silver the Hedgehog, formally known as Mecha-Sonic; and Shadow the Hedgehog, a black hedgehog that had shown them what the future of Mobius would hold if they didn't change their outlook on the war. While an official Freedom Fighter, Shadow never went on any mission that involved facing Robotnik or Mecha for a personal reason, so Robotnik has never seen him. Now about a year after Shadow first came to Knothole, things are finally quieting down. Sonic had collected all seven Chaos Emeralds, which they had found out could transform him into Super Sonic by striking two of the emeralds together when holding onto all seven. Silver had been coated with a special silver colored metal alloy just like Metal Sonic's blue alloy that protected him from the effects of the emeralds, allowing him to hold them and use them if necessary, but the need has not arisen. Sonic never could master the Chaos Control (at least not yet), leaving Shadow the only one able to use it. But enough of the past, let's jet to the present. 

********** 

Everyone in Knothole was fast asleep in the early morning hours of the day, resting from the week's long hours put into hit-and-fade attacks against Robotropolis. No major strikes, but enough to give Robotnik a good sized headache. Fortunately for them, Metal Sonic was still undergoing repairs from his last encounter with Super Sonic, so he was out of the picture during the strikes. Everything was as quiet as could be in the village, except for the sound of a hammer hitting something metal and the occasional ticking of a wrench working on a bolt coming from the giant storage shed near the edge of the village. 

Tails had been up since dawn, putting the finishing touches on a project that he had been working on for almost a year. The project had been ready to go since a few months ago, but Tails had taken some extra time modifying it to his standards. As he tightened the last of the bolts, he crawled out from under the engine housing, looking over his masterpiece with excitement. Sonic was going to love his surprise. 

********** 

_Beep…Beep…Beep…_ Sonic opened one of his eyes, then looked over towards the source of the sound. He groaned as he saw the familiar shape of his alarm clock, beeping constantly at him to wake up. He reached out and slapped the snooze button before turning over and falling back asleep. He was almost totally asleep again when there was a knock at his door. Sonic mumbled something inaudible, then slowly sat up in his bed. 

"Who's there?" he asked, eyes still trying to fully open. 

"It's Tails. Hurry up and get out here Sonic! I've got a surprise for you! It's in the storage shed out by the south edge of the village," answered an excited Tails. Sonic immediately woke up, feeling all his drowsiness slip away. He quickly got out of bed and threw on his sneakers before running out the door and down towards the shed. Everyone else was already gathered there since Tails had waken them all up the moment he was done. 

"So what's the big surprise, little bro?" asked Sonic as he skidded to a stop in front of the shed. Tails grinned one of his biggest grins as he reached down to open the shed's door. 

"Get ready for the surprise of your life Sonic, cause this thing's going to blow you away! I call it, the Tornado," said Tails as he threw open the shed. Everyone gasped when they saw the surprise. Sitting in the middle of the shed was a red bi-plane with silver wings and some kind of jet propulsion engine on the underside. 

"Wow! Now that's what I call a plane," said Sonic as he started looking it over from top to bottom. Silver and Shadow were also looking it over, Shadow for the look of the plane, Silver for the mechanics of it. 

"You put this together all by yourself?" asked an astonished Silver as he examined the engine housing. 

"You bet," said Tails, smiling proudly as he shook his head yes. Silver looked back at the engine and gave a whistle. 

"Hey Tails, why is there only one seat?" asked Shadow, noting the only place to sit. 

"Well, I had to make a few modifications to the plane in order to fit the machinery for the jet engine into the plane's frame, which meant that I had to put it in the passenger's area. But if you look on the top of the wings, there is a place where a person can anchor their feet to the wing. And don't worry, Sonic; the wing is insulated against your being super," he said, pointing to the top wing. Silver flew up to see that sure enough, there were two braces attached to the wing where someone could slip their feet inside and stay on the wing no matter what position the plane took. Sonic was nearly bursting with excitement as he looked inside the cockpit. He then leaped up onto the wing, smiling as he tried his feet in the braces. 

"This is way past cool, Tails. Is it ready to fly?" asked Sonic, his eyes shining with eagerness. 

"You bet, Sonic. I was hoping you would be the person I take with me on the Tornado's maiden flight," answered Tails. Sonic smiled as he gave Tails a thumbs up. 

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see what this baby can do!" cried Sonic as he jumped down off the wing and raced out of the hanger to grab the Chaos Emeralds. He didn't want to take a chance of the plane dying on them in the air, since Tails couldn't carry him all the way to the ground from that altitude. If he had the emeralds, he could become super and fly them both down safely. 

"Tails, are you sure you can fly that thing?" asked Sally as Tails wrapped a pilot's scarf around his neck. 

"Sure I can, Aunt Sally. If I could master flying with my tails, then I should be able to handle a simple plane. Besides, I know exactly what controls do what. I'll be fine," he answered as he put on a pair of goggles and a leather pilot's cap with openings for his ears. 

"Come on, Sal. Let the kid have a little fun," called Sonic as he sped into the hanger once again, this time holding two of the emeralds having pocketed the other five. Sally looked up at him, a stern look on her face. 

"You're only saying that cause YOU want to go flying on that thing, probably just to show off as usual," said Sally. 

"It's not that. Tails is 12 years old now. I think he deserves a little bit of fun when he wants it. After all, we were running mission against Robotropolis since we were 7 and never got enjoy our childhood," said Sonic. Sally sighed as she remembered those days all those years ago. Sonic was always pushing his limit, even though he never changed that attitude anyway. But so was she. She had to lead them through each of those missions, and at times she had wished that they could have just had some good, old-fashioned fun as kids. 

"All right, you win," said Sally, defeated. Sonic put his hand up to his ear. 

"I do believe my hearing's going on the fritz. I could have sworn you just said that I won," said Sonic. Sally just shook her head as Tails climbed into the cockpit. 

"You ready, Sonic?" asked Tails, looking up at the blue hedgehog. Sonic leaped onto the wing, looked back, and gave Tails a thumbs up. Tails nodded and motioned for everyone to step out of the way. He started the engine up, it purring softly as the propeller started rotating faster and faster. The bi-plane started moving out of the shed and towards a makeshift runway that Tails had made. It was a strip of the forest where no trees were blocking the way towards the cliff about a half-mile down the path. Tails knew he could get enough speed to lift off before they reached the edge, but if he did, then the plane what smack into the tree line above and snag Sonic's head. 

"We'll be back in about a day or two! I want to check out where ever it is we land!" hollowed Sonic as the plane accelerated down the path. Then the edge of the cliff came, and the plane went over, falling shortly, then pulling up towards the sky and then changing direction towards the Great Ocean. 

********** 

In the city of Robotropolis, the finishing touches on Metal Sonic's repairs were nearing their completion. Robotnik had been furious when Mecha had literally crawled into the Command Center after Super Sonic had once again trashed him, his electronics completely shorted out from Super Sonic grabbing an exposed part of his inner mechanisms and holding on while the power of his invincibility overloaded his circuitry. He had given the robot a serious yelling at, but such was standard for failing him every time. As the repairing mechanisms disengaged from Mecha's systems, the blue robot started walking out of the repair bay, his black and crimson eyes having no look but hatred on them. 

He had already come to the conclusion that Sonic was his number one enemy a long time ago, the silver robot and the other Freedom Fighters being nothing more than thorns in his side. He made his way towards the Command Center, ready to get his new assignment. Hopefully, this next assignment would get his mind off the blue hedgehog. He was almost there when his eyes caught the data on one of the radar screens. It showed an unidentified aircraft heading from the Great Forest out towards the sea. 

*So, those accursed Freedom Fighters have a new aircraft,* thought Mecha as he read the data as it scrolled up on the screen. *Perhaps I should show them that all air space is restricted.* Metal Sonic turned around and started running out of the building, engaging his cloaking device. He didn't want Robotnik to know he was sneaking out on his own, but he would tell him what happened when he returned later on. 

**Angel Island**

"Boy, this thing handles great!" yelled an energetic Tails from the cockpit of the Tornado as it flew out over the Great Ocean. Sonic was loving the thrill of riding on the wing as the bi-plane did turns to the left and right rapidly, then nose-dived and pulled out real quick. 

"Man, this is the coolest!" cried Sonic as the plane pulled out of another nosedive. "Come on, Tails! Let's see just how high this thing can go!" Tails gave Sonic a thumps up as the bi-plane started gaining altitude rapidly, flying high into the sky and entering a layer of clouds. After about two minutes, they rose above the layer of clouds and into the blue sky above. Sonic took in the site from his position on the wing. But then he caught site of something that he never expected to see. About two miles south of their position was a floating land mass about twenty square miles wide. Tails also saw the giant flying island, his mouth hanging wide open. 

"What in the world is that thing!?" asked Sonic, his astonishment growing every second he looked at the landmass. 

"It looks like some kind of flying island!" cried Tails. Sonic rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. 

"What do ya think's holding it up?" asked Sonic. Tails looked over the length of the island, but couldn't find anything to indicate what was holding it up. 

"I have no clue," said Tails. 

"Well, I say we land and investigate," said Sonic, pointing towards the island. 

"All right! Hang on while I make the course change," said Tails as he started to turn the Tornado towards the island. But Sonic didn't want to wait. Leaping off the wing, he went into a spindash as he started to fall to the ocean below. But he hadn't even fallen twenty feet when he struck the two emeralds he was carrying over his head. The tan parts of his body remained the same color, but his stunning blue changed to a hot yellow. His vision increased five times, giving him the eyes of a hawk. His arms were flung back by the surge of power as the emeralds started to orbit his body, three circling his horizontally, four circling vertically. He then blasted towards the island at Mach 2, leaving the Tornado far behind him. Just for fun, Super Sonic dove to water below and skimmed across the surface, kicking up a mist cloud behind him before flying back up towards the island. 

********** 

*Another beautiful and uneventful morning, same as always,* I thought as I sat on the top of the central mountain that served as the middle of my island. I'm Knuckles the Echidna, a strongly built Mobian with hands that are bigger than most other creatures. I also have long dreadlocks that I use to glide by catching air drafts. Each of my hands have two short spikes that protruded from the knuckles, which was why I was given the name Knuckles. I yawned and stretched as I looked about the clouds that were surrounding my island. 

It was then that I noticed something flying about five miles off in the distance. I raised my hand to shade my eyes as I looked out at the thing. It didn't look like any kind of bird I had ever seen before. In fact, the thing looked as if it had two pairs of wings. I did remember hearing about flying machines that could fly just about anywhere. While I had plenty of machines that helped me maintain the island and some others that I tinkered with, I had never seen a plane before. I quickly jumped to my feet, keeping an eye on the thing. 

Maybe it wouldn't land here. But by the way it was starting to turn towards the island, that wasn't going to be the case. Well, if that thing wanted to land here, then it would have to answer to me. I ran back about ten yards, then dashed off the edge of the mountain, spreading my dreadlocks as I started to glide down towards the northern edge of the island. But what I hadn't seen a the time was the small blue thing that was following the plane. It was keeping a good distance out of range of the plane so it wouldn't be spotted. 

********** 

"Well, well! What do we have here? An island that can stay afloat without any kind of support? Robotnik would love to hear about this," said Metal Sonic as he flew after the Tornado. He had been trailing the bi-plane for some time now, but he wanted to see where they were going in case they were heading for another Freedom Fighter village. But what they lead him to was way more important than any Freedom Fighter village. Chortling to himself, he changed his course to land on the island opposite of where Sonic and Tails were head for. 

********** 

"Man, look at this place! Those mountains, that jungle," said Sonic in awe as he flew over the north side of the island. The part of the island where they had chosen to land had a lush jungle that spread over about a fifth of the island, with a small beach near the edge. Tails started the landing procedure as they neared the edge of the beach where they had decided to leave the plane. The bi-plane started nose-diving towards the beach, but pulled up and straightened itself out as it touched down on the soft sand, easily slowing the plane down. Tails cut the engine as Sonic landed next to him. Sonic then reached out and grabbed two emeralds out of their orbit and struck them together, deactivating them as his color changed back to blue. 

"So what do we do first?" asked Tails as he climbed out of the cockpit. He pulled off the leather cap and goggles and stuck them in the bi-plane's glove compartment. 

"I don't know. How about finding something to eat since we left without eating breakfast," suggested Sonic, his stomach growling slightly. Tails couldn't help but smile as his own stomach growled, signaling his hunger from missing breakfast. 

"Okay, but how do we know if the fruit in this jungle is safe to eat?" asked Tails. But Sonic had already plucked a purple, pear shaped fruit off of one of the trees that lined the beach and was biting down into it. Tails watched hungrily as Sonic chewed the fruit for a second, then swallowed it. 

"How is it?" asked Tails. Then he caught sight of Sonic's eyes and saw the look that he usually only had for chilidogs. 

"Tails! This is the best fruit I have ever had! You've got to try some!" cried Sonic. That was all the encouragement that Tails needed as he flew up and plucked his own piece of fruit off the tree and took a bite. It tasted great! Kind of like a mixture of apple, pear, and honey. Tails had never eaten anything so good. They both picked a half dozen a piece as they sat underneath the tree, eating the delicious fruit. Little did they know that they were being watched. 

********** 

During my glide to the northern part of my island, I had seen the plane land on the northern beach. So I had been right about it wanting to land here. My thoughts quickly turned to the source of my island's flying power, the giant power stone called the Master Emerald. While it was hidden in the Hidden Palace, out of sight and mind from anyone but me, I still shuttered at the thought of my island crashing to the sea below and eventually sinking if it was taken. This worried me greatly, because whoever it was that was on that plane had to have come for it. There was nothing else of real value on the island. The whole rest of my glide, I thought of ways to deal with the intruders. Perhaps throwing them off the side of the island. Or just beating them to a pulp. 

But I wasn't stupid. I had seen that one of them was in possession of the seven Chaos Emeralds as I was gliding. I knew a lot about the emeralds, especially since my ancestors had studied them extensively. While the Chaos Emeralds were indeed powerful, there were other emeralds like the Master Emerald that contained greater power than they did. I figured that I would have to get those emeralds away from them first before I directly attacked them. 

I landed undetected in the jungle, then ran down to the beach. I stopped when I spotted the two intruders. One was a tall, blue hedgehog wearing red sneakers. The other was an orange fox…with TWO TAILS!? 

Now I had seen many strange creatures on my island that lived here naturally, but this new one took me by surprise. The fox had just finished climbing out of the bi-plane and was talking to the hedgehog. I wasn't close enough to hear them, but I guess they were just talking about eating since the hedgehog plucked a Kinkaburu pear off of a palm tree. I decided to wait and see what they were going to do. I would remain hidden unless they tried to venture into the jungle. If they tried to enter it, then they would have the fight of their lives. 

********** 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Metal Sonic was busy taking in his surroundings as he looked about the giant carnival he had happened upon. It was enormous, probably taking up about a tenth of the island. Everything looked in great shape, the rides ready to be used as soon as power was restored. After searching for a while, Mecha found the main switch to the carnival's power generator. Flipping the switch, he stood back and watched in awe as the whole place lit up. He had never seen anything like it. He cautiously stepped up onto the slowly moving carousel nearby, almost tripping from the change in G-force. 

*So this is what humans and Mobians consider amusement?* thought Mecha to himself as he jumped off the carousel, hovering in mid-air as he watched the mythical animal seats bob up and down. He had never understood the minds of any living creature, and frankly, he didn't want to. They all seemed like such silly beings. He slowly made his way through the carnival, watching the roller coaster as it whizzed by overhead. 

He saw it go through the loops, twists, and turns before coming to a stop at the entrance to the ride. Figuring that no harm could come from trying out the ride, he walked up the steps to the entrance and climbed into the front seat. This didn't seem so bad. He almost slashed the metal restraining bar when it came down on his lap, but he decided against it when the ride started moving towards the first incline. He looked about as the ride climbed the steep slope towards the top, seeing the whole island from his seat in the front of the coaster. 

He was actually starting to enjoy the nice, calm ride to the top of the hill. But his whole out look on the ride changed the second it went plunging over the edge of the hill, rapidly gaining speed as it shot down the railing. Mecha gripped the restraining bar as felt his body leave contact with the seat. Then the coaster shot up into the air, slamming Mecha back into his seat. He started to curse to himself, but never finished the sentence as the coaster whipped around a tight turn, flinging Metal into the side of the seat. Then a sharp turn the other direction sent Mecha flying against the other side. 

Next came the loop, which caused the gyros in Mecha's stabilizer to go completely haywire, giving the robot a feeling of nausea. After the coaster had righted itself on the track, Mecha quickly slashed the restraining bar off the seat and leaped out of the coaster. He hovered for a few minutes, watching the roller coaster with a fear that he had never experienced before. He landed a good distance away from the coaster, never wanting to come within ten feet of it ever again. He began exploring the carnival some more, but decided that that was the last ride he would ever try. After a while, he came to a small tent with a sign that said: KNOCK DOWN ALL THREE BOTTLES TO WIN A PRIZE! 

His memory banks recalled that a prize was often something given to someone as a reward. While he didn't like the idea of having fun by riding a machine that tossed you around like a rag doll, he did want to see what kind of a prize he could win at what his computer dictionary called a "carnival game". Maybe he could win something for Robotnik. He walked up to the tent and looked inside. There were three tables standing in the rear of the tent, each one had three bottles standing in a pyramid formation in the center. This was going to be easy. 

He looked about for a rock to toss at the bottles. After searching for two minutes, he found a nice, round stone. Taking aim, he threw the rock as hard as he could, smashing all three bottles on the middle table to pieces. He then took a step back and waited for his prize to appear. He stood like that for five minutes, his anger rising with each passing second as he waited for his reward. He then went ballistic on the tent, ripping it to shreds with his claws. His eyes glowing bright red, he turned away from the wreaked tent. He then started to proceed through the carnival again. 

After about another five minutes, he happened upon a stand that once sold saltwater taffy. By now, his previous anger with the carnival game had subsided and his curiousness was once again aroused. He examined the old taffy-making machine, trying to figure out what exactly taffy was. His memory banks did recall that taffy was some kind of candy, and that both humans and Mobians loved to eat candy. He then spotted a list on the side of the stand that had instructions for making saltwater taffy. Mecha was intrigued by the recipe, and decided that he wanted to try and make some himself. Maybe he could give the taffy as a present to Robotnik for sneaking out without telling him. 

He started combining the ingredients into a large bowl, mixing them together exactly as the recipe said to. He then turned on the machine and stuck his mixture into it. He watched with interest as the machine mixed and strung the taffy about inside itself, adding water to the mix. After about three minutes, the machine came to a stop, a bell chiming the end of the mixing. Mecha reached into the machine with his left hand to grab the taffy and pull it out, only to end up with his claws stuck together by the sticky taffy. 

Cursing to himself, he pulled his hand out of the machine and tried to separate his claws from the gooey candy. He then gripped his hand with his right and pried his claws open. But the sticky taffy caused his right hand to become stuck to the top of his left. He tried to take his right hand off, but the taffy held it tight. Growling loudly now, he yanked his hand free, only to have the sticky claws on his right hand smack onto the side of his head. Grabbing the arm with his free hand, he pulled his right hand off, now having his left hand stuck to his right arm. The scene continued for a good ten minutes before Mecha collapsed in a heap on the ground, his hands stuck together exactly like when he had first tried to handle the taffy. 

He walked back into the stand, looking for something to remove the taffy with. It was then that he spotted a small note on the top of the stand that read: "To clean taffy off of the metal pieces of the machine, heat until all taffy is melted off metal." His anger with the situation subsiding a little, he walked out of the stand and turned his engine on just enough to have a small flame stick out the back. He then reached behind his head and bent over, allowing the heat of his engine to melt the sticky goo off his hands and claws. After having the last of the taffy melt off his hands, he decided that he had had enough of the carnival and all its "amusement". He searched around for an exit for a few minutes before giving up and just flying out of the carnival, not even bothering to turn the power back off. 

********** 

"Man, that was the best thing I have ever eaten!" cried Sonic as he swallowed the last piece of his final Kinkaburu pear. Tails had already finished his and was inspecting the Tornado, seeing how well everything had held together on their flight to the island. 

"Boy, the Tornado did better than I expected, "said Tails as he examined the engine that provided power for the propeller. They had not used the booster engine yet, mainly because Tails had never had the chance to test it. But the main engine had worked perfectly. He rose from the engine housing with a big smile on his face and turned towards Sonic, who had started walking about the edge of the jungle. 

"This place sure looks neat," said Sonic as he gazed into the jungle. He saw several more of the palm trees inside the jungle, along with several other kinds of plants. The smell of the tropical jungle was overwhelming. It smelled like all the kinds of fruit and spices that Sonic had ever smelled, and then some. "What do you say we check this place out?" 

"All right. Just let me secure the Tornado so it won't go rolling off the island's edge," said Tails as he placed wooden blocks on either side of the wheels. He grabbed both of their packs out of the Tornado, then joined Sonic at the edge of the jungle as they started walking into the tangled trees and vines of the thick jungle. 

"Maybe I should go super, just in case," said Sonic, smiling as he struck two emeralds together, his coloring changing back to the hot yellow. Sonic then sped off at full speed, leaving a groaning Tails behind to catch up. 

********** 

I watched the two of them finish eating. They didn't seem that bad, but they had set foot on my home without my consent. It wasn't until I heard the hedgehog saying that he wanted to take a look around that I suddenly went on the defensive for my island's safety. But I had learned a long time ago that it was best to stay out of sight when preparing to ambush something. So I ran back into the jungle along the only visible path for over a square mile. Moving just out of sight of the trail, I climbed up the trunk of a nearby palm tree, letting my natural instincts take control in order to sense when they were at just the right spot to make my move. I then heard the hedgehog as he ran down the path, his hot yellow color mixed with the orbiting emeralds catching my eye. It was then I made my move. 

********** 

Sonic had been running along the narrow path that was winding through the jungle, his body forward at a 65-degree angle, his feet not even making contact with the ground. He was unaware that danger lurked above him. Sonic jerked his head up when he heard a cry that could wake someone from the dead. He looked up in time to see a red furred Mobian come flying out of the tree. Even with his excellent reflexes, Super Sonic wasn't able to get out of the way as the creature slammed a giant fist into his face, knocking him backwards a few feet and to the ground. 

It didn't hurt Sonic, invincibility from the emeralds made the blow only feel like a tap on the nose, but the force behind it was enough to knock him to the ground. But what happened next was what made Sonic a little nervous. When the fist had made contact with him, it had also knocked two of the emeralds together, one orbiting horizontally, another one orbiting vertically. The striking of the two emeralds deactivated them, and since Sonic hadn't been the one that struck the two together, it caused them to go flying several meters away from Sonic, whose hot yellow was now his normal blue. That emeralds deactivating also made part of the punch hurt. The figure quickly gathered the seven emeralds up off the ground as Sonic tried to regain his senses. The figure then turned towards Sonic. 

"Leave here now, or pay the consequences!" shouted the Mobian. Tails had caught up, but had retreated to the safety of the air as he watched the red furred Mobian stand his ground. Sonic dizzily stood up as he regained his senses. He then looked over at his attacker and got a good look at him for the first time. Red fur, long dreadlocks, and two big fists. At first, Sonic didn't recognize him as being an echidna, especially since they were believed to have been extinct for ages. 

"Thanks for the warning, buster," said Sonic, rubbing his aching head as he stared at the echidna with an angry gaze. Tails landed behind Sonic, taking refuge behind his hero. Sonic motioned for Tails to get out of the way as Sonic continued to stare down his opponent. 

"Who are you and what right do you have for attacking me and stealing my emeralds?" asked Sonic. The echidna smiled slightly as he clapped two of the emeralds above his head. His color changed to a hot pinkish red as he rushed Sonic, who knew better than to try and fight someone with the emeralds directly. Sonic leaped into the air and avoided the punch the echidna swung at him. Using his speed, Sonic landed behind the echidna and snatched the green Chaos Emerald from its orbit around the echidna. The other emeralds continued to orbit him, but the invincibility effects of the seven combined no longer had any effect. Knowing he was thwarted for now, the echidna dashed out of the area, using the emeralds remaining power to run away at well over Mach 2, just like Sonic had. 

"Sonic, who was that?" asked Tails as he came out of hiding. Sonic shook his head, his spirits very low. Here they had only had all seven Chaos Emeralds for only a few weeks, and all but one had been stolen in less than two minutes. 

"I have no idea, Tails. But were going to get those emeralds back," said Sonic as he took off into the jungle after the echidna, Tails flying right behind him. 

********** 

I couldn't believe that this hedgehog had been able to take back an emerald. I had seen many fast things in my lifetime, but no one could had ever come close to comparing with my speed before. I had always been a natural runner since my childhood, and could come close to breaking the sound barrier. But his speed wasn't the only reason I had hightailed it out of there, nor was it because he had taken back an emerald. I had sensed another intruder on the other side of the island, and I was determined to find him. 

********** 

Metal Sonic landed outside the carnival, ready to get back to his main goal of finding and destroying the Freedom Fighters who were on that plane. He was sure that Sonic was the one he had seen riding on the wings, especially after he had gone super; and he was ready to give him some pay back for everything he had done to him since the first time they had met. He was preparing to set out when his hearing detected something approaching rapidly from the north. Figuring it was Sonic, Mecha activated his cloaking device, ready to pounce on Sonic the second he appeared. Mecha watched for over five minutes, the power in his battery starting to drop into the caution zone. 

Sighing, he turned off his cloaking device and started to power his engine up to head towards where he had heard the noise. But no sooner had he turned off his cloaking device, he was struck in the back of the head with more force than the roller coaster had, almost knocking him to the ground. Whipping his whole body around, he came face-to-face with a red furred Mobian. His memory banks didn't recognize his species. Since Robotnik had figured all echidnas were extinct, he had neglected to put that information in his memory. But the Mobian stood ready to fight to the death by the look in his eye. 

********** 

I had ran as fast as I could towards the carnival, not even giving the hedgehog and fox a second thought. I had long since deactivated the six remaining emeralds, since there power was no longer complete, and had hidden them in a tree trunk not far away from waterfall that feed into the desalinization plant beneath the surface of the island. Climbing the tallest hill around the area, I looked towards the direction of the carnival and saw some kind of blue light flickering above where the carnival was. 

*That must be the intruder!* I thought to myself as I leaped off the hill and glided the whole ten miles to the outskirts of the carnival. The whole glide took me a good fifteen minutes to accomplish, but it was much quicker that running through Marble Garden, which rested in the middle of the island. As I was preparing for the final touchdown just outside the carnival, I spotted the intruder. This one was not a living creature, but instead a robot. And not just any robot, a robot that looked just like the hedgehog I had left behind. As I touched down, I saw it jerk its head upright, and I figured that he had heard my landing. I went to the ground, watching to see what he'd do next. 

He then vanished into thin air, leaving me worried sick to my stomach that he knew where I was. But after five minutes of waiting, he reappeared. This time, he had his head turned away from me. Seeing my chance, I rushed him, ramming my fist right into the back of his metallic head. He went reeling forward, but didn't fall. He then turned to face me as I went into an offensive stance, ready to fight this metal hedgehog to protect the island. His eyes glowed bright red at me, his silver claws glinting in the sunlight. He looked like he was almost on the verge of killing me outright without any sort of delay. But he stopped for some reason, his eyes returning to the normal light output they had been when I had first spotted him. 

"Who are you?" asked the robot. 

"Tell me who you are first," I answered. The blue robot smiled slightly, which made me a little nervous. But I stood me ground with a firm look of determination on my face, not showing any kind of fear. 

"My robot designation is Mechabot 2," said Metal. I had not known before hand that Robotnik had tried to build another robot version of Sonic way before Mecha, especially since Sonic had trashed him right after they had first met it. There was another one that Robotnik had been working on to replace Mecha, but it had been abandoned after it failed to even match Mecha's power and speed. "But I go by the name, Metal Sonic; or Mecha, as some call me." As soon as I heard him say his name was based after the hedgehog I had just beaten up, I knew he was up to no good. But what he said next had made me change my mind about him…at least for the two days following this encounter. 

"I was made to seek and destroy Sssonic the Hedgehog," said Mecha. This was a shock to me. So this robot had pursued Sonic all the way here. I wondered why the robot had stuttered when saying Sonic's name, but I dismissed it. Confining in my belief at the time that all robots weren't essentially evil, I figured him to be okay. I let my guard down slightly as the blue robot walked up to face me. 

"I believe he has landed on this island with the intention of taking it over for himself," continued Mecha. 

"But why?" I asked, becoming more trusting to Metal Sonic's talking. 

"It's a sad story, you see. My master built me to rid his glorious empire of the one thing that threatens his rule, which is Son…son…the hedgehog. I believe that he is going to turn your island into an aerial fortress to use against my master," said Metal Sonic. I couldn't believe my ears. That hedgehog planned to take over my home and turn it into a weapon to use against a great empire? I was listening intently now, not realizing that he had been lying to me from the start. 

"I know you think of me as an intruder myself, but I'm only here to stop him. Maybe with your help, we can stop him from succeeding," said Mecha. I thought about this for a minute. Sonic did come here packed to do an exploration of the place, and that plane would make a great get-away vehicle. Not to mention he had become super before entering the jungle as to protect himself from harm. And this robot did seem to have a hatred for the blue hedgehog. Everything pointed towards the robot telling me the truth. 

"All right. We will work together to stop him," I said shaking his claws. Little did I know that he was already planning to kill Sonic with my help, then turn on me and kill me as well, after Robotnik's most powerful weapon to date had been completed. 

********** 

"Now you are sure that this won't permanently harm the jungle, right?" I called up to Mecha as he hovered over the southern tip of the jungle. He had insisted on torching the jungle so that the ground would regain all the nutrients that it had lost over the years. But at the time, I hadn't know that his real reason to doing it was to hopefully catch Sonic and Tails in the soon to be inferno. 

"Of course I'm sure. All this will do is make sure that the plants will continue to grow for at least another couple of decades longer than it would otherwise," he answered spraying chemicals from a pack on his back. As soon as the chemicals came into contact with the jungle, the plants burst into flames. I wasn't worried so much over the fact that we were burning the jungle. Heck, even my father had done it once to replenish the ground. It was the fact that he was using chemicals to start the burning and keep it going. He told me it would go faster than traditional burning, and it would be safer, more controlled. 

But there was something that had me even more worried at this point in time. Mecha had radioed his master, who went by the name of Dr. Robotnik, and had told him to come to the island. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea at the time, but I figured that anyone who could create a robot like Mecha could surely help in the defense of my home. He was scheduled to arrive anytime now in his hovercraft, and I had overheard in the conversation that he had a special surprise in store for Sonic and Tails after we had made our greetings. 

It was then that I saw Robotnik's hovercraft coming into view. The guy seated at the controls was enormous. I decided it better not to say anything, but kept a mental note in my head never to eat as much as what I had been over the last couple of months. I watched as the hovercraft made its descent towards us, then noticed that Mecha's eyes had lowered in wattage output, making them almost too dim to see. My guess was that Mecha knew how the doctor would show up to the last detail and was bored to death of the same thing over and over again. I almost smiled, but held it back as the hovercraft finished its landing procedure. 

"What took you so long?" asked Mecha in a sarcastic voice, his eyes now back to their optimal outage. Robotnik gave him a mock smile. 

"Well, for one thing, my ship's not as fast as you," he answered, a hint of anger in his voice. He then turned to me, studying me like a lab experiment. I ignored him as he continued to examine me, but I decided to give him a friendly greeting. 

"Greetings, Doc, and welcome to my humble home," I said in a friendly voice. He must have liked my greeting, because he smiled slightly under his thick mustache. I wondered if it was from the warm welcome, or the fact that I had called him Doc. 

"Hello, echidna," said Robotnik. I suddenly felt very embarrassed. Here was Robotnik, ready to help defend my island and he didn't even know who I was. 

"The name's Knuckles," I said, raising my hand to shake his. He took it and shook it firmly, as any adult male of any species does to prove superiority. 

"A pleasure to meet you, Knuckles," he said. "Listen, just so you know and don't freak out, I have placed air units all around the island, so if they try to escape by air, they will be shot down instantly," said Doc. Now this caught my attention. I had only wanted to drive them off the island, at the most give them a good pounding, but not kill them. That look in Doc's eyes should have told me that he didn't want them to escape at all. 

"By the way, do you know if Sonic was carrying the Chaos Emeralds with him, by any chance?" he asked. 

"Yes, he was, and I was able to get the emeralds away from him just before your little robot here caught me attention", I said, jerking my thumb at Mecha. "Sonic did manage to get back one of them, however." Robotnik looked very pleased, which kind of worried me. Why would he ask about the emeralds? Did he know about their power, or was he just making sure that he wouldn't have to face Super Sonic on the island. 

"That is very good news. Can I please have them?" he asked very casually. Now this definitely raised a red flag in my mind. 

"Why do you need them?" I asked, trying to figure out what he needed them for. But at the particular point in time, my keen sense of the weather around the island caught my attention. Apparently, Mecha had caught it too, as he had raised his head and was suddenly a lot more alert than before. I looked about the clouds, looking for the usual dark clouds that usually accompanied this feeling. 

Sure enough, heading straight for the island was a giant, anvil-shaped cumulonimbus cloud, dark as night. Both Mecha and Robotnik looked horrified when the first lightning bolt lanced from the cloud. But I had no fear since I had handled situations like this all my life. Kneeling to my right shoe, I opened the metal plate on the top of the shoe, revealing a hidden compartment. I pulled out what looked like a small green jewel, which glowed softly. I was holding onto a miniature of the Master Emerald, which I used to steer my island wherever I wanted it to go. The Master Emerald could keep the island afloat in the air, but when I needed to move the island, this miniature proved to be more than adequate. I didn't notice it at the time, but both Robotnik and Mecha had turned their attention over to me, watching me as I prepared to move the island to a safer altitude. 

I rubbed my left palm over the top of the miniature emerald, letting my hands take in its power. I then formed a fist under my right hand with my left. To someone like me, who has spent the past 8 years doing this, the slight vibration that could be felt from the ascending island was unnoticeable. But both Robotnik and Mecha had felt the change, and watched with amazement as the island flew higher into the sky until it had risen out of the path of the thunderhead. I then put the miniature back into the compartment in my shoe before turning back to them. 

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, the amazement showing on their faces. 

"That...was incredible! How did you do that?" asked Robotnik, who was nearly shining with joy at the site. I was never one to withhold information from someone I trusted, which I regretted doing a hundred times over two days later. I told him all I knew about the Master Emerald, how I steered the island, everything I knew about the Chaos Emeralds. He listened intently, while Mecha just stared off into space like nothing was going on, yet he did hear the whole conversation. But what was surprising me was how much he was interested in the Master Emerald. But I just shrugged it off as over-active curiousness. 

"So that's why Sonic and Tails came to the island. They must be after the Master Emerald" he said, following the lie that Mecha had told me earlier. "I know I sound kind of selfish in saying this, but I do feel that the Chaos Emeralds would be safer with me. After all, I have a vast army of robots that can defend them." I thought about this for a minute, which surprised me because I should have known right then not to give them to him. But the logic behind what he had said prevailed, and I set out to retrieve them. Running back to the tree I had left the emeralds in, I gathered them up and dashed back. 

"Great. Now give them to me!" demanded Robotnik. This startled me slightly, and I was a little reluctant to hand them over, but I did. But the second they made contact with Robotnik's hands, the emeralds glow increased ten-fold, blinding all three of use, even Mecha. There was a small sound, like a hammer hitting something, as Robotnik was thrown back by the now rapidly spinning emeralds. Both Mecha and I watched as they swirled about a hundred feet in the air. I had no intention of disturbing their little dance, cause I knew that the safety measure of the emeralds had become active. But Mecha shot off at top speed to try and collect the gems. I yelled at him to stop, but it was too late. Mecha hit the invisible electric field around the emeralds and went flying right through a tree with more force than being shot out of a cannon. Being the only one left standing, I watched as the jewels slowly stopped their rapid spin cycle. Then the emeralds shot off in different directions, each one vanishing in a flash of light. Robotnik was the first one to say something. 

"What just happened?" he asked, rather annoyed that the emeralds had just flung him across the ground. I began to explain to him that the red emerald was so powerful, it was almost radioactive. It needed the green emerald to stay cool and under control. Without the green emerald around to keep it in check, the other emeralds had been absorbing the energy of the red one, causing them all to become highly reactive. This caused them to go crazy like they had, and they had all shot off to an unknown dimension, waiting to be recollected. I had not told him that giving the emeralds to someone who wasn't supposed to have them also triggered this effect. But if the green emerald had been present, the safeguard wouldn't have activated. This should have convinced me that Robotnik was not the good guy he claimed to be, but instead my rage towards Sonic increased. Not only had Sonic invaded my island, he had also taken the green emerald back, allowing the others to become reactive. Now the only emerald left was the green one. 

"Oh well, no matter. I think it's time I give Sonic little visit," said Doc as he powered up his hovercraft. Mecha flew out of view for a second, then returned lugging two attachable flame-throwers, which he placed on the sides of the hovercraft. 

"Hey, Doc! Do you mind if I set up a little trap near the waterfall?" I asked. He looked at me with a quizzical look, probably wondering if I thought he couldn't handle Sonic on his own. He then shrugged. 

"Sure, whatever. I'll leave Mecha at your disposal until I get back," he said as his hovercraft zoomed out of view. 

"You heard Doc, let's get going," I said to the blue robot. I thought for a sec I saw a hint of anger in the robot's eyes, but he didn't seemed to be mad, so I dropped it. I knew the prefect place to set my little pitfall. Both Mecha and I left the clearing and headed in the direction of the waterfall. 

**********&

"So what do we do now, Sonic? That echidna guy stole all but one the emeralds and we have no clue as to where he went," said Tails as he ran beside Sonic, his double tails twirling behind him to give him added speed. Sonic stared at the softly glowing green emerald, still kind of angry at the echidna. It had been almost half an hour since he'd been wiped clean of all but the green emerald, but his anger was starting to subside a bit. They had trespassed on the island, which was probably why he had ambushed them. But why did he take the emeralds? More importantly, how did he know how to use them? Sonic had only stumbled upon how to activate them when he had struck two of them together out of anger when Antoine had ticked him off earlier that month. But this echidna knew how to activate them from the start. 

"I don't know, little bro. But I say the first thing we need to do is get back those emeralds, then catch that echidna and teach him a lesson in manners," answered Sonic. But then Sonic suddenly screeched to a halt, almost causing Tails to bump into him from behind. 

"Why did you stop?" asked Tails. Sonic answered by holding up a now dead green emerald, all it's glow and color gone. "What in the world happened to it!?" 

"I'm not sure," answered Sonic, shaking his head. "But if I'm correct, that echidna did something to it." Sonic was about to take off again when he was suddenly knocked to the ground by a coconut. Sonic groaned and rubbed the bump on his head. He looked up to see a small monkey swinging on the treetop nearby. "Hey! Why'd you do that?" 

"To get your attention, hedgehog. To get your attention!" said the monkey as if he was on a serious sugar high. Sonic started walking over to the tree, ready to dodge another coconut if necessary. 

"Why did you want my attention?" asked Sonic. The monkey giggled in amusement as he swung by his tail. 

"Looking for a special kind of jewel you are, right? Chaos Emeralds they are called, yes?" asked the monkey, doing a poor imitation of Yoda. Sonic sighed. This monkey sure was weird, but if he knew where the emeralds were, then he'd have to put up with him. 

"Yes, we are looking for the other Chaos Emeralds. Can you tell us why this one went dead?" asked Sonic. The monkey swung up onto the treetop, then jumped down and examined the emerald. 

"The emerald is dead because the others are no longer here," he answered before climbing up a different tree. This time, Tails asked the next question. 

"What do you mean they are no longer here?" he asked 

"To a different dimension they have gone, which is why yours is dead. And each one went to a different part of that dimension. They can be collected again, but one must pass a test to reclaim each one individually," said the monkey. 

"How do you know all of this?" asked Sonic. The monkey shrugged, causing Sonic to roll his eyes. 

"It is not my place to tell you how I know such things, hedgehog. There is a way to reach the dimensions, but I will not tell you directly how to find it. Rather, a riddle you will have to solve to find what you are looking for. Here it is: 'Looking for emeralds far and wide. The ring teleporters you must find'," said the monkey. He then started bounding off into the jungle, leaping from treetop to treetop. 

"I wonder what that means?" asked Tails as he tried to think of what that meant. Sonic was thinking about it too, but he couldn't think straight standing still, not with his anger towards the echidna still present. 

"I don't know, but I'd say that monkey sound kind of nuts," said Sonic. Tails chuckled slightly as a thought came to his mind. 

"I know, but I'd call him Coconuts by the way he beamed you with one," he said, now rolling on the ground with laughter. Sonic laughed some too, amused by what his little sidekick had said. 

"Come on. Let's keep trying to find that echidna. Maybe by the time we find him, I'll have figured out what that riddle means," said Sonic as he started to run through the jungle once more. But they had hardly gone a quarter of a mile when they ran into the biggest inferno they had ever seen. Everything was on fire, even the logs on top of the nearby river were on fire. 

"I'll give you two guesses who did this," said Sonic, pointing at the burning trees. 

"Either Metal Sonic or Robotnik," said Tails. Sonic nodded his head in agreement. There was no way that echidna would be stupid enough to set fire to his own home, and the only other people who would have followed them here had to be them. 

"Well, I think that we'd better try and get out of here before they find us. No telling what those two could be up to," said Sonic. He reached behind him to grab Tails, but noticed that the young fox's eyes were wide with terror. Sonic looked towards where Tails was looking. Coming towards them was some kind of giant, orb shaped machine with organ pipes on top, colored jet black with silver trimming. 

"So, old Buttnik found us. Too bad he didn't come himself, but this thing will have to do," said Sonic. He was ready to release some of his anger, even if it wasn't on that echidna. "Usual attack pattern. Look for a weakness." Sonic stood his ground as the machine came to a hovering position about a foot off the ground. Tails circled overhead, looking for a weakness on the top. Sonic watched the machine closely, watching for when it would attack. There! 

Sonic leaped into the air as a blast of fire came from a nozzle on the front end of the machine, just barely missing him. Sonic dropped to the ground and sped towards the machine. It tried to hit him with another blast of fire, but Sonic dodged that one too. He curled up and went into a spindash, crashing into the left side of the machine. His quills had left a gash in the armor of the machine, but it was otherwise unhurt. Tails tried to help out by diving towards the machine, ready to give it a good swift kick in the side. But before he could even get within twenty feet of the thing, it opened the organ pipes and shot three missiles from the tubes. 

Tails quickly retreated to the safety of the air, watching as Sonic played follow-the-leader with the missiles. He led them along, placing already burning trees in the middle of him and the missiles, which caused them to explode into the trees, sending burning wood chips flying everywhere. But now that he had seen where the missiles came from, Sonic knew how to take out the machine. He leaped high into the air and spindash towards the three organ pipes on the top of the machine. Tails saw what Sonic had in mind and started a nose-dive towards the rear pipe. Sonic slammed into the two forward pipes, bending them inward enough to plug up the holes with its own metal. Tails came out the dive feet first and gave the rear pipe a swift kick, bending it in a similar fashion. The machine, which was totally oblivious to the now blocked pipes, fired off another round of missiles. But instead of exiting the pipes like they were supposed to, they crashed into the plugging metal and exploded, fire engulfing the machine. 

"Tails, come on! We need to get clear of here! That thing's going to make a good sized fireball when the fire from those missiles reaches the fuel tanks!" yelled Sonic. Tails didn't need anymore motivation. He flew away as fast as he could go, Sonic running at over 100 mph to escape the soon-to-be explosion. Then the fire hit the tanks. The machine expanded for a fraction of a second, then exploded in a shower of fire and molten metal. Sonic came to a stop as Tails landed next to him. 

"Well, I think Robotnik's gonna 'fire' that machine for good the next time he sees it," said Sonic. Tails couldn't help but laugh. They continued walking through the now smoldering jungle, Sonic relaxed quite a bit more than he had been a few minutes ago. At least, until Tails had stopped and stared at something in a cave just a few meters away from the path. 

"Sonic…what is that?" asked Tails nervously, his mouth hanging wide open. Sonic doubled back and looked into the cave, only to have his mouth join Tails'. Floating in the middle of the cave was a giant gold ring, which was spinning around at a fair speed. 

"I have no idea, little bro," answered a startled Sonic. Then what the monkey had said came back to him. _"Looking for emeralds far and wide. The ring teleporters you must find."_ Could this be the "ring teleporter" the monkey had spoken about. Cautiously, Sonic walked up to the spinning ring. 

"Sonic, what are you doing?" asked Tails. Sonic felt more scared now than he had in a long time, but it didn't show on his face. 

"I'm going to check this thing out. I think this is that ring teleporter that leads to the dimension the emeralds went to," he answered. Tails suddenly became a lot braver as he walked up next to Sonic. 

"Well, what are we waiting for. I want to get back those emeralds and teach both Robotnik and that echidna a lesson," said Tails, trying his best to sound bold. Sonic smiled. 

"Okay, then. You go first," he said. Tails courage suddenly vanished as soon as it had appeared. 

"No need, you go first," said Tails. Sonic chuckled slightly before taking Tails' hand and leaping into the ring, which vanished along with them. 

********** 

"Man…check this place out!" said Sonic, totally in awe of the place they had materialized in. The dimension that the ring had led to was one where the land was a huge sphere; with many small red spheres, some blue spheres, and a couple of yellow spheres strung about. Sonic was about to start walking when a voice sounded from out of nowhere. 

_"Collect the blue spheres. Do not touch the red spheres. Collect all rings for teleportation to next part of the dimension," _said the voice. 

"What do you suppose it meant by collecting rings? I don't see a single one around here anywhere," said Tails. Sonic shrugged. 

"Who knows. But if this is the place where an emerald might be, then I say we do as the voice said and start collecting the blue spheres," said Sonic. He and Tails agreed to split up and start collecting them. Tails even made a bet that he could collect more spheres than Sonic, and thus the thing was turned into a contest. They ran about the giant sphere, collecting every blue one in sight. It wasn't until the last 3x3 square of spheres that Sonic stumbled upon how to find rings. 

He had circled the outside of the square, changing the blue ones to red. But when he touched the last blue sphere, the whole square turned to rings. Both of them smiling, they rushed to see who could collect the most rings. Of course, Sonic was able to snag five out of the nine. It was then that he saw something coming over the horizon of the land. It shined slightly and was about the size of Sonic's dead emerald. He then realized that it was one of the lost emeralds. Running over to it, he snatched it in his right hand as both he and Tails became surrounded by white light. 

********** 

They were once again standing in the middle of the cave, but Sonic was now holding onto both the green and red Chaos Emeralds. The red's glow was very diluted compared to the last time he had seen it. The green emerald was starting to regain its glow too, but just barely. 

"Well, I beat you this time, little bro," said Sonic as he mentally counted up the number of spheres they had each collected. 

"Just you wait until next time, Sonic," said Tails. "Well, now what, Sonic?" They walked out of the cave, but had no idea as to where to go next. 

"I guess we keep looking for either Robotnik, more giant rings, or that echidna," said Sonic. They both started to walk off in the direction they were walking before. It wasn't long until Sonic spotted one of the things he had suggested looking for. Heading straight towards them was Robotnik's hovercraft, still outfitted with the flame-throwers. Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and took off at over 80 mph towards where they had last seen the river. Hopefully, Robotnik hadn't seen the flash of light when they had exited the ring earlier. He continued running, jumping over a log, then ducking under a low branch that had been charred black. Then he raced across a small bridge…only to see the echidna staring down at them from a cliff overlooking the waterfall the bridge was near. Sonic skidded to a halt, not knowing what the echidna would do to them and also hoping he hadn't seen them. He looked right at him, but he paid no attention to them. Sonic wondered why, but then got his answer when the bridge suddenly caught fire. Robotnik had caught up with him and had set the bridge ablaze with the flame-throwers. Sonic grabber Tails hand and sped across the burning bridge as it collapsed behind them. 

"What now, Sonic? That echidna's just waiting for us to try and cross that other bridge and Robotnik's got us trapped from behind," yelled Tails, obviously afraid. 

"We'll have to improvise. Normal attack pattern. Old Buttnik's ship always has a weakness," said Sonic as he started jogging around the small island that stood over a hundred feet above the pool of water below. Tails flew in the opposite direction, looking for any sign of a weakness to the craft. Robotnik had fought Sonic enough times over the last year to know that he would eventually find a weak spot, and he wasn't ready to just sit around while he found one. 

Gunning his engines, he sped towards Tails, ready to ram him head-on. But Tails was quicker than the hovercraft, especially with the added weight from the flame-throwers. He flew straight down and then flew back up and gave the bottom of the craft a solid kick on the lower left side. While it didn't harm the craft, it did knock it off balance. Enraged, Robotnik turned his sights on Sonic, who stood his ground as if nothing were there. Fueled by his rage, Robotnik shot off both of the flame-throwers at the blue hedgehog. But Sonic dodge to the right and spindashed towards the craft, slamming into the left flame-thrower. The explosion that followed was fairly big. Sonic had obviously hit the fuel tank the thrower used to create the flame. Aside from a few singed quills, Sonic was unhurt. But the hovercraft was spinning wildly out of control, Robotnik shouting curses left and right. He then detached the remaining thrower and sped off into the sky. 

"Serves you right, ya creep!" shouted Tails. He was quite proud that he had actually held his own in a fight, and he was smiling the biggest smile Sonic had seen in over a month. 

"So far, so good. All right you!" hollered Sonic up to the echidna. "Come down here and face us!" The laugh that followed from the echidna just caused Sonic even more rage. 

"Why would I want to do that!" he yelled back down to Sonic. "I have a surprise for you and your little fox friend" This worried Sonic. This echidna had gotten the drop on him once before, and he wasn't ready for a second surprise. 

"Before the surprise, what's your name?" asked Sonic. 

"I guess you should know who it is your fighting, since I now know who you are, Sonic. My name is Knuckles…Knuckles the Echidna," he said. "Now back to that surprise. I might just let you leave without harm if you hand over your emerald." 

"I'll never give it to you! Not you and certainly not Robotnik!" shouted Sonic. Knuckles shrugged. 

"Okay, suit yourself," he said calmly. 

********** 

I could see that Sonic was too protective of the emerald, and wouldn't give it to me until he was either unconscious or dead. I looked back at Mecha, who was standing by with the switch that I had wired to yank the supports of the bridge out from under the two of them below. Nodding, Mecha pressed the switch. I looked back over the edge in time to see the bridge sway slightly. But then I heard their yells of fear, and pity took over for a second. I hated to have to do this to them, but it was for the safety of my home. I was still a little flustered, but I was able to keep my voice devoid of pity. 

"See you in the depths of Hydrocity, Sonic," I said coldly as the bridge gave way and the two of them fell into the pool of water below. I knew this wouldn't kill them, only take them to the underground desalinization plant where the island's store of fresh water was kept. I had asked earlier if Mecha wanted to join me in going after them, but he had refused, saying that he wasn't made to get to damp. Pity, I thought. Mecha would have been a great help in tracking them down there, but what was said was said. 

I heard the familiar sound of Doc's hovercraft as it came in for a landing behind us. He climbed out of the craft, obviously anger about the damage it had sustained from the fight. 

"Where are they now?" he asked, his voice flat and unemotional. 

"They should be exiting the pipe system within the next ten seconds. Don't worry, though, I can probably get down there and get the system going to slow them down before they can even figure out where they are," I said proudly. Doc didn't show any kind of emotion at all, which made me a little nervous. But then my nerves were calmed a little. 

"Proceed. I will be down there shortly after Mecha and I modify my craft for use around water," he said. I nodded and proceed to the nearest secret entrance to Hydrocity. 

END OF CHAPTER 1 


	2. Hydrocity

Hydrocity ****

Chapter 2

Hydrocity

The pipe that had sucked up Sonic and Tails snaked back and forth like a water slide, half full of salty water. Sonic and Tails were swept along in the wet darkness, fighting to keep their heads above water. The pipe swept straight down, and they splashed into a tank. They both struggled to get back to the surface. Tails had no real trouble as he was a better swimmer than Sonic, but Sonic was forced under further by the water coming out of the pipe. He needed to get to the surface quickly, or he would drown. Thinking quickly, he dropped down to the very bottom of the tank and used the almost weightlessness of the water to leap high and fast. He sprung from the tank and landed on the small ledge on its side, gasping for air.

"Sonic! Are you all right?" asked Tails as he help Sonic to his feet.

"Yeah, but I don't think I'll be thirsty again for a month," he answered, coughing up some water as he spoke. Sonic then performed a mid-air spindash to fling most of the water on him off. Tails spun his double tails dry, but had to shake off the water remaining on his fur, which didn't really work very well. He was still quite wet, but he figured that he would get wet at least once more down here, so he didn't bother with it any more.

"So now what?" asked Tails.

"I'm not sure. That Knuckles guy said that this place was Hydrocity, which is probably where he stores his water supply, given these tanks," said Sonic, jerking a thumb at the tank that they had landed in. "The question is how do we get out of here?" They both looked around for an exit or something, but found none. But Tails had another idea that was just as good.

"Hey Sonic! How about we slide out of here?" he asked. Sonic looked over at where Tails was pointing to see a giant half-pipe with water running down it.

"I don't know if that's a good idea or not. The last pipe almost caused me to drown," answered Sonic.

"Oh, come on you wimp. It's not like this one is enclosed or anything," countered Tails. Sonic sighed, knowing that Tails would continue the argument no matter what he told him.

"All right, but you're going to sit on my lap. No way we're going to get separated. The last thing I need right now is to have to try and find you because the pipe splits up somewhere," said Sonic. Tails nodded as Sonic sat down on the edge of the pipe. Tails then climbed into his lap as Sonic wrapped his arms around him.

"Ready, cause here we goooo!" shouted Sonic as he pushed off. The water immediately swept them away through the half-pipe, accelerating them rapidly as it descended further into the depths of Hydrocity. They passed by several other half-pipes, each one carrying water to what was probably other storage tanks further on down. Both of them were having a blast as they sped down the slippery pipe, occasionally getting splashed when they met a turn in the pipe. The pipe straightened out and started heading towards the ground, causing them to speed up even faster. But Sonic suddenly saw something that took the fun out of what they were doing.

"Oh boy! There's a giant tank below us, and that one is way to big to be just a storage tank!" shouted Sonic. Tails looked down to see that, indeed, there was a collection of water that could pass as being a small lake, and was just as deep. Fear gripped the young fox as he tightened his grip on Sonic's arm. The pipe ended and shot both of them towards the crystal clear water below. Sonic knew he had to do something, and decided to risk the one move that could save them. Revving up his feet just before they hit, Sonic shot across the miniature lake, skimming the surface with Tails in tow. He looked around desperately for a place off of the water to stop on before he lost traction with the water, but he could only see a small intake pipe ahead of them. Letting out a loud breath of air, he yelled at Tails to take a deep breath as he did himself. Then they entered the pipe, spiraling downwards through the waterlogged pipe.

**********

I had rushed as fast as my feet could carry me in the damp slickness of Hydrocity. I knew exactly where the intake pipe lead to and had to do a minute glide to reach the tank, but by the time I got near it, Sonic and Tails had already left. I cursed to myself, not really knowing where they could have gone to since there was no way out other than flying or climbing. I could can some altitude when I glided if I caught a draft and I was an excellent climber, so I wasn't worried about how to get out if I fell in. It was then that I heard a yell coming from down below.

I ran over to the edge of the platform and looked over. There they were, sliding down the half-pipe that led to the main water storage area. I watched them for about thirty seconds before I realized that the area below had no way of getting out of. Well, there was the pipe that lead to the upper level of Hydrocity where the water became desalinized, but surely they wouldn't do that since it was constantly flooded with water. I grinned, knowing that they would need my help to escape their watery confine. I could name my price, which of course would be the green emerald. I watched as they fell off the pipe, but became astonished when Sonic suddenly took off over the water like a motor boat, kicking up a plume of water behind him as he carried Tails along with him. Then they both entered the same pipe I had been thinking about earlier.

"Man! They are both crazy," I said to myself. I shook off my surprise and decided it would be better to go and check in with Doc. He had radioed me just before I had started my glide towards the tank saying that he had reached the main control room for the underground plant and was ready to start up the machine as soon as I returned. I walked over the edge of the ledge and leaped off, starting on a return glide. Throughout the whole glide, I kept wondering how I would find Sonic and Tails after they exited the pipe system this time. If I couldn't reach them the first time when I actually knew where they were going, then how could I find them when their exit would be a random area of the plant. 

**********

Sonic felt as though his lungs would burst from the amount of time they had to hold their breath as the two of them were tossed about by the rapidly flowing water in the pipes. Sonic didn't know it at the time, but Tails had already reached his limit for holding his breath. It was a long five seconds until the pipe ended and they were flung out of the pipe and into a much smaller tank. Fortunately, this tank wasn't inescapable like the last one. Sonic coughed a bit and turned towards Tails.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" said Sonic. It was when he noticed Tails' eyes weren't open that he knew something was wrong. Not even asking if he was okay, Sonic grabbed him around the waist and dragged him up onto the top of the tank's side.

"Tails! Tails, answer me!" shouted Sonic. Tails didn't even stir. Sonic began to panic. It was now that he really wished that he had paid attention when Dr. Quack had shown the village how to perform CPR.

**********

It was coincidence only that I happened to be walking down the hallway outside of where the pipe they had been in exited. I didn't see them, but I heard a splash in the tank's area just as I started walking by. I then heard Sonic's voice say something. I peeked into the room, wondering if I should jump them or not. But then I realized that something was wrong the second I saw Tails lying on his back with a panicking Sonic looking at him. Suddenly, all the fight left me when I saw the small fox unconscious. I still thank the stars even to this day that my father had taught me CPR. I ran into the room and up to the drowning fox. Sonic immediately went ballistic the moment he saw me.

"You! Look at what's happened because of you!" he shouted. I was still angry at Sonic, but not to the point of letting his best friend die. I ignored him as I went to work on Tails. I checked to see if he was breathing, which he wasn't. I pinched his nose and started breathing into his mouth. After five breaths, I started pumping his chest. Counting off to five, I then started to breathe for him again. Sonic had stopped his ranting and was watching both Tails and me with hopefulness. I repeated the process again. Still nothing. Then during the third round of breathing, Tails responded. He started coughing and sputtering up water. I backed off as Sonic held Tails in his arms, helping him sit up.

"Oh, Tails! Are you okay?" asked Sonic. Tails looked over at him, still kind of dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

"Yeah…I guess so," he answered, still kind of shaky. Sonic looked up at me, all his anger gone from his eyes.

"I…don't know how to thank you," he said.

"Well, I would ask you for the emerald, but I'll let it pass this time," I answered. I figured that the scare Sonic had just had was enough right now. And besides, I would have another chance to try and take back the emerald.

"Thank you, Mr. Knuckles," said Tails, who had almost recovered from his ordeal.

"Hey, think nothing of it, kid," I said. I then turned to Sonic. "But don't think we're all pals now. I only saved his life cause a kid his age shouldn't have to lose his life at such a young age. But next time will be different. I still see you as a threat to my home, and I won't hesitate next time we meet." With that remark, I walked out of the room. I then ran off as fast as I could, leaving them to recover. I was glad Doc didn't find out what I had done, cause he probably would have sent Mecha after me if he would have found out. I ran back to the control room, finding Doc and Mecha waiting for me. Funny, I thought the robot didn't want to come down here.

"You were unsuccessful at retrieving the emerald?" he asked.

"Yeah, I lost them in the pipes. But don't worry, Doc. They'll have to pass by the main generator outside of the control room to get out of here, so we'll see them again before they get out of here," I answered. I was kind of hoping Doc would leave them alone, but I should've known better than that.

"Good. I'll personally see to it that they will have a wet and wild time when the get here. In the mean time, I want you to try and locate them, then lead them here," said Robotnik, pointing towards Mecha. The robot was visibly displeased that he had to go outside where there was an abundance of water, but he left and flew down the corridor, his engine purring softly.

**********

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Sonic for the fifth time. Tails was now on his feet and feeling a lot better, but the constant questioning was getting on his nerves.

"For the last time, I'm FINE!" he almost yelled. Sonic was a little shocked at the rise in his voice, but didn't let it show. They started to walk out of the room before Sonic noticed something glinting from the light in the room off in the rear corner of the room. Nudging Tails, he started walking towards the glint. Tails followed, and then both of their eyes started shining when they saw what it was. Spinning in the corner was another ring teleporter.

"What do you say, Tails? Up for another round of emerald earning?" asked Sonic, a smile on his face.

"You bet. This time I'll get more spheres AND more rings than you," said Tails, issuing his challenge again.

"Yeah right," said Sonic as he dove into the ring, Tails right behind him. They were lucky to have entered the ring when they did, cause as soon as the ring disappeared, Mecha walked into the room, his eyes glowing bright red from his infrared sensors. He had been sure that they had been in here, but he had lost the two heat signals the moment they had jumped into the ring. Sighing, Mecha turned and walked out of the room, continuing his search through the plant.

**********

"Is the modification finished yet?" asked Robotnik as he paced around his hovercraft and me. Doc had talked me into placing a water turbine engine under his hovercraft. He wanted to somehow get them into the generator's water pool and create an artificial whirlpool in the water, making them spin wildly under the water. I figured that it would be a fitting way to deal with them. If they were too dizzy to stand after they got out, then taking the emerald back would be a snap. I finished tightening the final bolt and crawled out from underneath the hovercraft.

"There. It should be able to give you a good sized whirlpool from the generator's water supply, assuming you can get them in there," I said.

"Well, you and Mecha will have the honor of getting them into the pool," said Robotnik, his pearly white teeth smiling at me.

"Sure thing, Doc. I want another chance to get that emerald back too," I said.

**********

A flash of white light inside the room subsided as Sonic and Tails re-materialized. This time, Sonic was grasping both the orange and light blue emeralds. They had been doing quite well, having been able to collect all the rings in both areas before moving onto the third area. But Tails had touched a red sphere after catapulting off of a yellow sphere and landing on the red one, sending them back to the room. Sonic pocketed the emeralds and turned towards Tails.

"Well, that's three down and three to go," said Sonic. Tails nodded, then started raising a finger to point towards the door. Sonic looked over at the door to see none other than Metal Sonic standing in the doorway, his eyes glowing bright red.

*Oh great, that's all we need right now,* thought Sonic as he watched the blue robot shoot forward, ready to ram him. Sonic stood his ground till the last second, then dodged to the right, Mecha over-shooting him. He tried to correct his maneuver, but instead crashed sideways into the rear of the room. Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and took off, rounding the doorway and dashing down the hallway outside. By now, Mecha had recovered and was in hot pursuit of them.

"Man, doesn't he ever give up?" yelled Sonic as he saw the blue robot chasing them. He was totally silent, which meant that the robot wasn't in the mood to mess around. He was his deadliest when he didn't taunt Sonic. Sonic rounded another corner, Mecha right behind him. Now the robot spoke.

"Hand over the emerald, Ssson…hedgehog, and I'll stop this chase!" he hollered at Sonic. Tails pulled himself up to Sonic's ear.

"Sonic, just give him the green emerald. He'll leave us alone if you do. Besides, we can get it back later," whispered Tails. Sonic kept his eyes forward as he continued down the corridors at a good clip of over 70 mph.

"Can't do that. Even if he did stop, the red emerald would go nuclear, revealing that we had more than just the green one cause I'd have to drop it," answered Sonic in a whisper. Tails took a glance back to see Mecha still on there tail, and gaining fast.

"Sonic, he's catching up! Faster!" shouted Tails. Sonic couldn't help but smile.

"Ask and ye shall receive," said Sonic as he sped up, causing Mecha to slow his gaining pursuit and eventually start falling behind. Tails took this chance to glance over his shoulder and stick his tongue out at the blue robot. But all this did was anger the robot even further. He blasted forward at an accelerated rate, starting to close the gap once again between them. Tails looked horrified when he saw the robot start to gain again. He made a mental note never to stick his tongue out at another robot ever again, except maybe Silver when the time was okay. Sonic rounded another corner, this time entering a giant room that housed the main generator. Sonic wasn't about to stop, but he suddenly saw Knuckles standing at the exit door, already in a fighting stance. Skidding to a stop, Sonic glared at his rival with a renewed hatred. Mecha landed 50 meters behind them, his eyes still glowing brightly with anger.

"So, hedgehog. We meet again," said Knuckles.

**********

I had agreed with Mecha over his comm unit that he would chase them into the main generator room and we would both get them into the water. I stood in a fighting stance, ready to surprise them the moment they entered the room. Then they entered, Mecha hot on their heels. I watched as Sonic skidded to a stop, his eyes burning with fire at me. I smiled and looked him in the eyes with the same fire.

"So, hedgehog. We meet again," I said. I was over the encounter earlier and was ready to get back the green emerald. "You know, we would leave you two alone if you would just hand over that emerald." I expected Sonic to answer with a smart remark, but the person who answered my dare was a total surprise.

"You'll never get our emeralds!" shouted Tails. I looked at Tails, but then turned my eyes towards Sonic. Sonic thought I was looking at him, but I was really watching Mecha as he came up behind them.

"You know what I love about you, Sonic?" I asked. He smiled and put his fists on his hips.

"No, what would that be?" he asked. By now, Mecha had silently floated up behind Tails and was reaching out for him.

"Hoe easily you can become distracted," I answered as Mecha grabbed Tails. He yelled out as Mecha lifted him above his head. Sonic turned his attention over towards Mecha and Tails. I took this opportunity to charge Sonic. Mecha through Tails into the water below. Sonic tried to grab him before hit, but wasn't fast enough. Tails hit the water and slowly came to the top. He broke surface and gasped for air. Sonic was so preoccupied with Tails safety that he let his own guard down. I slammed my fist into the back of his head, causing him to fall headfirst into the water. I left the room, following Doc's instructions that I monitor them from the control room while he and Mecha made sure that they got the emerald back. As I reached the control room, I switched on the loudspeaker and leaned down to the mike.

"Okay, Doc! You're up," I said into the mike. I then reached over and turned on the receivers to the room so I could hear what was going on. I watched as Doc's hovercraft dropped from its spot near the ceiling and head towards the middle of the pool. Sonic and Tails both looked up to see the now spinning turbine under the craft head straight towards the center of the pool.

"Swim!" I heard Sonic cry. I watched as they tried to reach the edge of the pool before the turbine hit the water. But they didn't even make it halfway to the edge before the turbine made contact with the water. At first, it appeared as though nothing had happened. But then the visible turning of the water became visible as Sonic and Tails were dragged into the mini whirlpool in the center of the water. I watched as their heads disappeared under the water. I figured that Doc would keep them under for another twenty seconds or so, then let them come back up for air.

But twenty seconds came and went, and they still hadn't surfaced. Now I started to worry. I still didn't want them dead, and I began to think that Doc wasn't going to let them come up for air at all. I decided to take a risk and save them once again. I ran over to the override panel and hit the emergency drainage system. I then watched as the water level of the pool began to rapidly shrink, as well as the size of the whirlpool. I could see Doc getting very angry. At one point, he looked over at me through the glass. I made a faked shrug and started to look as though I was trying to correct the problem. By now, all the water had drained from the tank.

Sonic and Tails were lying at the bottom of the tank, unconscious from the lack of air. But I saw them both breathing, and relaxed slightly. But then Mecha started to fly towards the tank. Obviously, Doc had ordered him to attack them while they were down. I still thought that they didn't need to die, at least not yet. I reached over and pulled the tank's reserve water supply. I watched as Mecha flew down into the pool, only to shot out at double the speed after seeing the water come rushing out of the pipes. Taking another risk, I pulled the lever that would open the barred exit pipes. I watched as Sonic and Tails floated along with the water as it gushed out of the pool through the emergency exit. Then they were out of view. It was then that I heard Doc's voice come over the control room's speakers.

__

"Knuckles! Explain why they escaped!" he yelled. I became nervous, but kept my cool.

"Sorry, Doc. The system went haywire. I haven't exactly kept up in its maintenance," I said, trying to put so regret into my voice. There was along silence, which scared me even more than when he had yelled at me. Then Robotnik spoke.

"It's okay. Where does that pipe lead to?" he asked. I had to think about it for a few moments. It had been so long since the emergency drainage system had been used that I couldn't even remember where it went.

"I think Marble Garden," I answered. Another pause.

"All right. How about you go after them. I have some personal things to attend to right now," he answered. Now my blood started rushing. This was the chance I had been waiting for since we had made our alliance.

"Sure thing, Doc! Leave it to me. I'll get that emerald back," I said. I then started walking out of the control room, but stopped when I heard him say something else.

"One more thing. I need you to fly the island to the Ice Cap mountain range near the equator. There is a base of mine there that I need to make a call to," he said. The Ice Cap mountain range!? I had only heard of it, but it was supposedly the most famous mountain range on Mobius.

"All right. I can set the island on auto-flight. We should be there by morning," I said, looking up at the clock on the wall. Was it only 3:30? I gave a snort, thinking it was later in the day. Boy, how time seems to creep by when you're dealing with intruders. I took the miniature Master Emerald out of my shoe, rubbed my palm over the top of it, and then threw it to the ground. The second it touched the floor, a spinning ring that was flashing brightly appeared. I picked up the mini Master Emerald and stepped inside.

**********

"Come here, Mecha," said Robotnik. The blue robot flew up next to his master, his expression one of anger, which was getting to be normal for him.

"You don't actually believe that little stunt he pulled was a mechanical problem, do you?" asked Mecha. Robotnik shook his head.

"No, I don't. I want you to follow him. Make sure he deals with them the right way the next time he sees them. If he does, then report back to me. If he doesn't, then you may do with him as you see fit," said Robotnik. Mecha smiled, happy to accept the assignment. He didn't trust the echidna as far as he could throw him. He turned towards the exit and flew off, the blue glow of his engine trailing.

**********

I appeared in Hidden Palace, where the Master Emerald lied. I walked up to the pedestal it sat on and look up at it. It was enormous and weighed almost a ton. I sighed as I looked at the seven other pedestals in the palace. These had once been the spots where the Super Emeralds had rested. But they had been hidden around the same time as the palace, and no one since then had ever seen them.

I returned my gaze to the Master Emerald. I walked up and placed my right hand on it. I then sent a command to it to take the island to the Ice Cap mountain range just by thinking about the place. I felt the island jerk slightly as it started heading south towards the equator. I then walked back a few feet and took the miniature out, rubbed my palm over the top of it, then threw it to the ground. Once again, the ring appeared. I had set this one to appear in the vicinity of Marble Garden, then leaped into it.

When the blinding light faded, I was standing in the middle of the ruins of an old city that had once been the center of life for my ancestors. The Marble Garden, I thought to myself. Every time I visited here, I was blown back by the history the ruins told. But no time to gaze this time. I started running towards where I was sure the emergency drainage pipe exited. I didn't know it at the time, but about 200 yards behind me was Metal Sonic, keeping tabs on me just like Doc had ordered. He then started following me, as he had been instructed to.

END OF CHAPTER 2


	3. Marble Garden

****

Chapter 3

Marble Garden

The pipe that had taken Sonic and Tails from Hydrocity did end in Marble Garden, just like Knuckles had thought. Sonic was the first one to awaken after they had been lying for about half an hour.

"Oh man. What in the world happened? I feel like I've been in a washing machine," he said groggily. Sonic sat up and looked around for Tails. He spotted him lying about ten feet away, still asleep. Sonic slowly rose to his feet and walked over to the sleeping fox.

"Hey, Tails. Wake up, little bro," said Sonic as he gently shook him. Tails eyes fluttered open.

"Just five more minutes, please?" begged Tails. Sonic smiled and rose to his feet. He looked about where they had ended up, trying to figure out where they had exited the pipe. It wasn't very much. Some ruins, grassy plains, a crocodile with headphones and a honey bee wearing a leather pilot's cap playing off in the distance…

"What in the world!?" said Sonic aloud when he saw the two other Mobians. Tails looked over at where Sonic was looking and suddenly became alert as well. The two Mobians were playing what looked like a game of tag.

"Who are they?" asked Tails.

"I don't know, Tails," answered Sonic, shaking his head.

"You think they're Knuckles' friends?" asked Tails.

"Maybe, but probably not likely. If they were, then they would be looking for us, not playing a game," said Sonic. Tails had to nod to that logic. "What do you say we find out if they can help us or not?"

"Sure. Maybe they know where another ring is," said Tails.

"They might," said Sonic. With that, he started running over towards the two Mobians. They didn't notice him at first, but when he got closer they stopped what they were doing. They waited patiently while Sonic and Tails approached them.

"Who do you think those two are?" asked the honey bee.

"Have no idea, but that hedgehog sure is fast" said the crocodile. A few seconds later, Sonic pulled up next to them.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Sonic, trying to sound friendly. The crocodile turned and looked at the honey bee, who nodded in return.

"Not much, blue dude. The name's Vector," said the crocodile, reaching out his hand.

"I'm Sonic," said Sonic as he took Vector's hand and shook it. The honey bee turned to Tails, who in turn flew up next to him.

"Hi, my name's Tails," said Tails as he reached out his own hand.

"Charmy. It's a pleasure to meet you," said the honey bee, shaking Tails' hand.

"So what are you two doing on this island, anyway?" asked Sonic. Vector and Charmy exchanged glances, then both shrugged.

"To tell you the truth, we've been here for over a month. We both came onto this island while it was setting in the ocean near Emerald Coast. The next thing we know, this whole island was a mile up in the sky. We've just been keeping ourselves amused until the next time this place lands near land," said Vector.

"Yeah, but we're really starting to get bored. Everyday it's the same thing over and over," said Charmy, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Well, you can fly. Why don't you leave?" asked Tails.

"Two reasons. For one thing, I can't fly that far. The other reason is I can't leave Vector here by himself, he'd probably keel over from boredom," answered Charmy. Vector chuckled slightly, then looked over at Sonic.

"Hey Sonic, I saw that you're pretty fast," said Vector. Sonic crossed his arms and frowned.

"What do ya mean _pretty_ fast? I'm the fastest thing alive," said Sonic proudly. Vector only smiled.

"Well, then let's just see whose the faster of us. I'll race you to that ridge over there," he said, pointing to a hill that ended with steep edge on one side about three miles away.

"You're on!" said Sonic. The two of them assumed a starting position. Then they took off, both of them staying neck and neck with each other. Tails looked over at Charmy the same time the honey bee looked at him.

"Well, what do you say we go after them?" asked Tails.

"Sure thing, but I'll get there before you do!" cried Charmy as he took off after the two racers.

"Hey! No fair!" shouted Tails as he flew after the honey bee.

**********

I had been walking through Marble Garden for over an hour, still trying to find the exit pipe from Hydrocity. I was getting tired of walking and decided it was time to take a rest. I sat down on one of the smooth pillars that was strung about the ground. I then laid back and looked skyward, trying to remember just were that pipe was. I then sat up and looked around. I then looked over at one of the many buildings that littered the grassy plains and spotted what I had been looking for.

"All right! There's the pipe!" I said aloud as I ran over to it. As I had figured, Sonic and Tails were already gone. But a small trail of wet footprints gave me the general direction they headed in. Letting a smile form, I started off in the direction the prints were pointing. Then as an after thought, I went over to a nearby building and climbed onto the roof, where one of my flight tops was sitting. I jumped onto it and started running, the top spinning under my feet. It took a few seconds, but the top then lifted off the ground and started flying in the direction the foot prints had pointed towards.

**********

Hidden in the shadows shined two crimson half circles as they watched the red echidna run over to the pipe, then depart heading south-southeast. The two eyes' light dimmed considerably as Metal Sonic emerged from under the ruins. He watched Knuckles as he took off into the air, keeping him on his scanners as he activated his commlink.

"Metal Sonic reporting in, sir," said Mecha. His unit buzzed and crackled a few seconds, then cleared.

"So what is our red furred friend up to, Mecha?" asked the voice of Robotnik.

"He just found the exit pipe and then headed off in a southerly direction. I am following at optimal distance. He still doesn't know he's being followed," answered Mecha.

"Good, make sure you're not spotted or else the small amount of trust he has in us will be broken. I'm preparing to depart along with the Drillbot, so if you sense some tectonic vibrations, it's probably either me or the robot," instructed Robotnik.

"Do you doubt my capabilities to stay out of sight?" questioned Mecha, not even paying attention to the second part of the transmission.

"No, it's just that he has natural skills that might be able to break through even the most advanced stealth techniques, so stay focused," answered Robotnik.

"I will. Metal Sonic out," said Mecha, breaking the transmission. While he didn't express it when transmitting, he was angry that Robotnik didn't think he could keep out of sight from Knuckles for very long. He took off after Knuckles with a renewed hatred for the echidna, determined to catch him in the act of helping Sonic and Tails.

**********

"So, ready to give up, Sonic?" asked Vector as he raced along side Sonic at over a 100 mph. Sonic had to admit that Vector was pretty fast himself, but he was only letting the crocodile think he was faster, Sonic hanging back a few feet.

"Nope, but I think you should," said Sonic, smiling slightly as he neared the point he had decided to leave Vector in the dust.

"Now why would I want to stop now? I'm out ahead," said Vector. Sonic shrugged.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," said Sonic as he reached his imagined marker. He suddenly shot forward, accelerating as though he had spotted Mecha right behind him. Vector's eyes went wide when he saw Sonic blast past him and continue speeding up. Sonic kept accelerating, feeling the push of the sound barrier try to stop him. He continued speeding up, shattering the barrier open with a sonic boom. By now, he was well ahead of Vector and nearing the hill that was to be their finish line. Behind the two racers, Tails and Charmy were holding their own race.

"Come on, Charmy! I thought you were faster than that!" yelled Tails as he flew a few yards ahead of the honey bee.

"I am, but I prefer to conserve my energy until the time arises to use it," answered Charmy. Tails had always thought that keeping behind others voluntarily was just a sign of giving up, but Charmy's comment made it seem as though it was a smarter way of winning. Tails shook the idea from his head the minute he thought of how Sonic always used his full speed when he raced Shadow and Silver around Knothole weekly to keep in shape and how he won every time. Tails then sped up, pulling even further out in front of Charmy. Charmy just smiled as he watched the inexperienced fox gained even more ground on him, thinking to himself that the kid had much to learn.

"I'll see you at that hill," said Tails. They were about half way there, and by now, Sonic and Vector's race was nearing its end. Sonic had already reached the hill about a good mile ahead of Vector, who was still about a quarter of a mile away after Sonic had been waiting for about thirty seconds. Sonic took the spare time to take a look around. He didn't find much interest in the surrounding ruins, having seen enough ruins from villages that Robotnik had found and destroyed before help could arrive. His train of thought was broken as Vector came dashing up the hill, only going a lot slower than earlier.

"Hey, Vex! I was beginning to wonder if I needed to send out the search parties," said Sonic, smiling. Vector walked up to Sonic, totally out of breath.

"You…know…what? That was…the best…race I've had…in quite a while," said Vector.

"Glad to be of service," said Sonic. Vector chuckled a little before looking back towards where the two aerial racers were flying towards the hill.

"So who you thinking will win that race?" asked Vector. Sonic looked up and saw that Tails was out in front, but obviously tiring as he continued his accelerated pace. Charmy was still hanging back about ten yards, but still looked fresh and ready to go.

"I'd say Charmy. Tails is pushing himself so hard to the point he can't possibly keep going at that pace. Charmy, on the other hand, is conserving his energy and hasn't tired as much as Tails," said Sonic as he observed them. Vector nodded in agreement as they watched them come within a quarter mile of the hill.

"Looks like I'm going to win!" shouted Tails over his shoulder at Charmy.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Tails," said Charmy in a low voice as he sped up, quickly closing the gap in-between them. Tails was totally oblivious to the fact that Charmy was gaining until his sensitive ears caught the faint sound of buzzing. He turned his head around just in time to see Charmy move past him and continue gaining ground on him. Tails tried to summon more speed, but realized that he was too tired to go any faster. Charmy was a good 50 yards ahead now, landing on Vector's shoulder to signify that he had won. Tails landed three seconds later, totally exhausted. He panted heavily as he sat on the ground, holding himself up with his arms.

"Not so easy to win when you're too tired to keep up, eh?" asked Charmy. Tails ignored him as he slowly climbed to his feet. Sonic reached into his pack and grabbed four of the ten bottles of water they had packed for the trip. He handed one to each of the thirsty racers, then opened his own and drank half of it in less than ten seconds.

"You know, I can't believe we're drinking water after just having been dunked in it three times in the last three hours," said Sonic.

"I know what ya mean," said Tails as he finished drinking. Both Vector and Charmy looked at one another, then at their two new friends.

"What do you mean 'being dunked three times in the last three hours'?" asked Vector. Sonic then explained about how they had come to the island, the sneak attack from Knuckles, losing six of the emeralds but recovering three of them, their taking numerous dunkings in Hydrocity's water tanks, then ending up with them.

"Boy, you two sure have been through a lot!" exclaimed Charmy.

"Yeah, and I'll bet my speed that ol' Knux is still trying to track us down," said Sonic as he looked back towards where the pipe from Hydrocity had been. Suddenly, the ground started to shake violently. Vector and Sonic were thrown to the ground as Tails and Charmy took to the air. It was Charmy who first spotted what was causing the earthquake.

"Look! Some kind of drill is coming out of the ground!" he shouted as he pointed to the now cracking ground. Sonic and Vector regained their footing as two drills emerged from the ground. They were attached to what was basically three balls with an engine. The two smaller, outer balls held the drills while the middle ball held the engine. Sonic immediately spindashed towards the engine ball, but the thing shot into the sky, almost knocking Tails and Charmy from the air.

"Spread out! It can only follow one group of us!" shouted Sonic. They broke off into two different directions, Tails and Charmy heading into a small cave nearby while Sonic and Vector headed out into the open grassy plains. The robot paused for a second, unsure who to follow. It's simple mind tried to choose the most logical course of action. It was programmed to attack Sonic first, then Tails. But Sonic was out in an open area where its drills wouldn't have much effect. Tails, on the other hand, had went into a cave where its drill could use the hanging stalagmites to its advantage. Finally reaching a decision, the robot flew in the direction of the cave.

Sonic and Vector watched the robot from a distance as it hovered, trying to come to a decision. It then turned and flew off towards and then entered the cave. A sudden fear shot through Sonic. The robot was going after Tails, not himself like he would have thought. Tails wasn't up to fighting Robotnik's robots yet. And Charmy would also be a target. Sonic suddenly blasted from his spot accelerating from 0 to 200 mph in less than a second. Vector started off after Sonic, but there was no way he'd catch up in time to help.

Inside the cave, Tails and Charmy were trying their best to avoid the falling stalagmites as the Drillbot knocked them off the ceiling with its two drills. It wasn't easy, as the whole cave was nothing more than a narrow tunnel that only lead deeper into the ground, so all they could do was fly forward. It also didn't help having just flown a race for over three miles.

"Watch it, Charmy! One's coming on your left!" shouted Tails spotting a falling stalagmite. Charmy dodged to the right and dropping back, barely avoiding the sharp, pointed rock. Now behind Tails, Charmy saw the next one coming.

"Right!" he shouted. Tails dodged right, just missing another of the falling rocks. The Drillbot was good, but Tails and Charmy were better at avoiding the falling rocks. This made the simple mind of the robot start processing the situation again. It decided that if it couldn't hit them with the stalagmites from above, then it would simply thrust its drills into the two of them. The Drillbot started a sharp dive towards the two fleeing Mobians. Neither of them noticed, as they were too busy trying to make the best of the sudden lack of falling debris. By now, Sonic had caught up with them and saw what the Drillbot planned to do.

"Tails! Charmy! Duck!" yelled Sonic. Not thinking twice, they both dove to the floor as the Drillbot passed only centimeters above their heads. Sonic then shot by, heading straight at the Drillbot with anger he hadn't felt since earlier that morning. He curled up and spindashed towards the engine housing, crashing his spinning spines into the back of the Drillbot, knocking it off balance. As it fought to regain its balance, Sonic leaped high into the air, then spindashed towards the left drill ball. He connected solidly with it, crushing the small ball and knocking it off the Drillbot. Without both its drills to stabilized its weight, the Drillbot could no long maintain flight. It started a spiraling nose-dive towards the ground below, then slammed into the side of the cave wall. But it didn't explode, instead shattering into dozens of fragments. Tails and Charmy let out a sigh of relief, both slumping to the ground.

"You two okay?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah, we're just fine. A little exhausted, but fine," answered Tails. By now, Vector had reached them and was exhausted just like the two fliers. Sonic looked at Vector.

"You know, you really need to work out more, Vex," said Sonic. Vector nodded in agreement. He then picked Charmy up in his hand and placed him on his shoulder.

"Yeah, but I think we've had our fill of exercise today," said Vector, Charmy nodding in agreement. "We'll see you guys later."

"All right, see ya later," said Sonic as Vector and Charmy started towards the exit of the cave. Sonic looked back at Tails, who was still resting from the chase.

"Hey, you going to be okay?" asked Sonic. Tails nodded, then looked up at him.

"Yeah, I'm just tired," he answered. Sonic decided it was as good a time as any to break out the dinner he had packed them. Of course, they'd need a fire to cook the hot dogs he had brought with him. As luck had it, there were several dry sticks lying about the cave. He spent the next hour gathering up all the sticks in the area, then placed them in two piles, keeping one off to the side. He then looked over at Tails, who had fallen asleep.

He had his two tails covering his front like a blanket. Sonic couldn't help but smile at the sight. He returned his attention to the sticks as he pulled out the red Chaos Emerald and placed it on the edge of one of the pile. He then started backing away from the red emerald, it's glow increasing as he did. The distance between the red and green emerald now increased, the red's energy was starting to become uncontrolled and making the jewel hotter. Sonic had to back up a total of ten feet before the red emerald was hot enough to start the fire, but the sticks burst into flames immediately and stayed lit.

Walking back over to the fire, he sat down and stuck two hot dogs on a stick he had saved to cook them with. As the hot dogs cooked, he started to think about how the day's event had unfolded. He recalled the first encounter with Knuckles and how he knew how to activate the emeralds, recovering first the green emerald from Knuckles, then the red emerald, the fight with the fire machine and then Robotnik, getting dumped into Hydrocity by Knuckles, reclaiming the light blue and orange emeralds, getting chased by Mecha, almost drowning in the generator tank, the race with Vector, the attack of the Drillbot, and now their dinner. *Boy,* he thought. *I had more adventure today than in the past month.* His thoughts were interrupted by a waking Tails as he yawned and stretched, his tails sticking out like the stalagmites above them.

"Sleep well?" asked Sonic.

"Yep. I feel a whole lot better," answered Tails with a smile. Sonic smiled himself. He was used to not sleeping for a few days when he needed to, but Tails was still a kid and couldn't stand that amount of time without sleep.

"You ready to eat some dinner?" asked Sonic. Tails eyes shined with the look of happiness at the mention of a meal. Taking one of the hot dogs off the stick and placing it in a bun, he took a bit, then almost immediately spat it out. Sonic couldn't help but laugh when this happened.

"It's NOT funny!" shouted Tails, taking a drink from his water bottle to cool the burn on his tongue.

"Sure it is! You should know better than to bite into a freshly cooked hot dog. It's always going to be too hot to eat right away," said Sonic. Tails was about to say something else when his eyes caught something shining further down the cave.

"Hey Sonic, what's that?" asked Tails, pointing down the cavern. Sonic turned his gaze towards where Tails was pointing, his spirits soaring as soon as he realized what it was.

"If I'm correct, it's another ring," he answered. Tails jumped to his feet and started towards it, but stopped when Sonic didn't follow.

"What's wrong, Sonic?" asked Tails. Sonic shrugged as he put his hot dog into a bun.

"What's the rush? I say we eat first, then get the emeralds. That way, we won't have to cook these things again," he answered. Tails thought that sounded good as he sat down again. Sonic then took a bite of his hot dog, then also spat it out and took a drink of his water. Tails smiled evilly at Sonic.

"You know, you should know better than to bite into a freshly cooked hot dog. It's always going to be too hot to eat right away," said Tails as he recited Sonic's comment earlier. Sonic looked at him with a look of sarcasm on his face.

"Oh, shut up," he grumbled. Tails couldn't help but roll on the ground in laughter, and Sonic soon followed suit, relieving the tension brought on by the days events. After their laughing fit subsided, they started in on their hot dogs again. After they finished them, they both leaped into the ring and started the task of retrieving the last three emeralds.

**********

I had been walking in a southeastern direction for some time now having ditched the top after not seeing them from the air. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of them ever since I had let them out of the generator tank in Hydrocity, and I was beginning to believe I had lost them. It was then that I looked behind me towards the sunlight. It was now getting within a half an hour of sunset, and the daylight was fading with each passing minute. As I was watching the sun, I noticed something red flash in the ruins ever so quickly. I frowned, not knowing what could have caused that. Then an idea hit me. I decided I would let whatever it was suddenly lose sight of me and possibly reveal himself. I suddenly dove towards the ground and started digging. It wasn't long before I was a good ten feet underground. I then tunneled sideways towards where I had seen the red light. Above me, my stalker was peering into the hole I had dug, trying to figure out what I was doing.

"Metal Sonic to Robotnik. Come in, sir," said Mecha into his commlink.

"What is it?" asked Robotnik.

"Sir, I think Knuckles has gone insane," said Mecha.

"And why do you think that?" asked Robotnik, annoyed that the robot had bugged him with something so farfetched.

"Well, he just dug underground and then disappeared," said Mecha. Suddenly, Robotnik's voice boomed over the commlink.

"You idiot! Get out of there! He's onto you!" shouted Robotnik's voice. Metal Sonic wasted no time in powering up his engine to leave, but he didn't even get off the ground before I burst from the ground behind him, landing a punch to the back of his head for the second time that day. Mecha whirled around, his eyes glowing bright red with anger, looking like he was ready to grind me into dust. But before he could, I started apologizing for striking him. I had known all along it was him, but didn't let it be known.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mecha. I thought maybe it was Sonic who was following me," I said. Mecha's eyes returned to their normal outage, then he growled something I didn't catch. He then extended his hand to me. I took it and shook it, letting the fact that he gave it a good squeeze go by unnoticed.

"So what are you doing out here, anyway?" I asked, even though I knew that he'd been tailing me.

"Just gathering data on these ruins. My master wishes to learn all he can about the history of this island," answered Mecha.

"Oh, well just don't touch anything. These ruins could come down just like that," I said, snapping my fingers. I saw Mecha shudder just slightly. I had obviously hit upon the spot where he had been watching me for the past four hours.

"Anyway, I think they've already left Marble Garden. It only takes me two hours to navigate it by foot, and with Sonic's speed, they probably got through even faster," I said. Mecha nodded his head slightly, obviously not wanting to believe me. "But if they were headed in this direction, then their next stop should be the carnival. If we go now, we should get there by nightfall." I then noticed that Metal Sonic had shuddered even more when I mentioned the carnival. I smiled inwardly. Obviously, the robot had run into a few of the things in the carnival that didn't agree with him before I had originally found him. All the more reason that he would be too worried about his own safety and ignore me for most of the time we were there. We then started off towards the carnival, Mecha lagging behind to stall the inevitable.

**********

A flash of light burst through the darkness of the cave as Sonic and Tails materialized once again from the sphere dimension. Sonic was now holding onto the white, blue, and purple emerald, all of their color and glow returned with the recovery of all seven emeralds. 

"All right! All the emeralds are ours once again," said Sonic proudly. He started to put them in his pack with the others, but when he did, the light in the cave was driven back by the darkness. He sighed. He hadn't wanted to use the emeralds unless necessary so that Robotnik and Knuckles wouldn't know he'd recovered them. But if they were to get out of the cave safely, he had to use them to light their way.

Taking the other four emeralds from his pack, he struck all seven together in front of him. His blue color flashed to hot yellow and his quills stuck out as though he was electrified as the emeralds power surged through his body. The seven emeralds started orbiting his body once again, four horizontally and three vertically. They then started walking towards the exit of the cave, Super Sonic's glowing fur and quills providing their light. They walked for almost twenty minutes, not realizing just how deep into the cave they had gone.

Then they started feeling the flowing fresh air from outside, and both were relieved to finally be out of the cave. Sonic reached out and grabbed two emeralds from their orbit and clapped them together, his hot yellow fur returning to cool blue. It was considerably darker outside. Sonic was about to take a look at his watch when he remembered he had shorted it out the second he had become super. He made a mental note to get a watch that was protected against being super.

As they started walking, they noticed that the ground was starting to vibrate ever so slightly. Sonic grabbed Tails hand and sped towards the safety of a shadow under the nearby remains of a building. They both watched as a drill twice the size of the Drillbot's emerged from the ground, attached to none other that Robotnik's hovercraft. He had received a message from Mecha to meet him and Knuckles at the carnival and was heading towards it, not even taking notice of Sonic or Tails. Sonic watched the hovercraft as it started speeding off towards the south. He couldn't help but smile when he saw that Robotnik hadn't seen them.

"Oh man, I couldn't have planned this better myself," whispered Sonic.

"Planned what, Sonic?" asked Tails.

"You'll see. Think you have enough strength in ya to get me up next to his hovercraft?" asked Sonic.

"You bet," answered Tails as he took to the air and started flying towards the craft. Sonic ran along the ground, then jumped up and locked wrists with Tails, the fox carrying him high into the air. As they neared the hovercraft, Sonic instructed Tails to let him off on the rear of the craft, then to hang back and be ready to catch him if necessary. As he finished his instructions, they reached the rear of the craft. Sonic ever so carefully reached out a hand and grabbed onto the back of where the drill was attached. He then let go of Tails and grabbed on with the other hand. If the craft jerked any from his action, Robotnik didn't notice. Sonic couldn't help but smile as he situated himself so he could stand on his feet just out of view of the glass dome over the top of the craft.

He then took two emeralds out of his pack. Almost unable to control his giggling, Sonic clapped the two emeralds together as his color flashed to hot yellow, the emeralds starting their orbit. Immediately, Super Sonic's invincibility started to flow into the ship, electrifying the delicate circuitry. Robotnik started panicking in the cockpit as he tried to figure out what was going on. It was then that his gazing eye caught sight of one of the orbiting emeralds. Cursing loudly enough that he could be heard through the glass dome, Robotnik started shaking the craft back and forth violently, trying to shake Sonic off.

But Sonic held tight, the ship's electronics shorting out even quicker with all the jerking. The engines started dying, and Robotnik was yelling curses rapidly as he started punching several buttons. Sonic was enjoying the look on Robotnik's face that he wasn't prepared when the drill he was riding on suddenly detached from the ship. Sonic was startled, but not to the point of losing his head. He quickly leaped off the falling drill and started slowing his descent. Tails had flown down after him and was flying next to him as he dropped. After about a minute of falling, Sonic managed to pull out of the dive and head back up into the air, Tails right behind him. But by the time they had returned to where they had left the craft, it was long gone. And the sun had just set over the horizon, leaving them in the coldness of the darkness with only the light of the moon and Super Sonic visible.

"Rats! He got away again! I thought I had him that time," said Sonic. But Tails wasn't paying any attention to Sonic. He was too busy looking down at the carnival below them.

"Hey Sonic! Check that place out! Look, it's got a roller coaster and merry-go-round and a Ferris wheel and tons of other stuff!" he cried. "Oh can't we please go there? Please, please, please!" Sonic knew how Tails felt. The kid had hardly had much fun in his life, and what little of it he did have was usually months apart. And Sonic couldn't help but think that he deserved a little reward after collecting all the lost emeralds.

"All right. Next stop, the carnival!" shouted Sonic as he dove towards the brightly lit carnival below, Tails hot on his heels.

END OF CHAPTER 3


	4. Carnival Night

****

Chapter 4

Carnival Night

It was just about five minutes past sunset when I saw Doc's hovercraft heading towards the carnival almost completely out of control. Its engines were smoking and small bursts of electricity were jumping across the mainframe. I tapped Metal Sonic on his shoulder and pointed towards the faulting ship. Mecha didn't waste any time as he flew up and started pushing on the underside of the craft, straightening out the free fall it was in. The craft steadied itself as Mecha helped bring it down safely. As soon as it touched down, Robotnik leaped from the machine and yelled so loud I was sure people on the shore a hundred miles away could hear him.

"Something wrong, Doc?" I asked casually, not really intimidated by his anger. He looked over at me with fire in his eyes. I thought he was going to jump me and maim me until I passed out. But he steadied himself and breathed a few deep breaths as he got his anger under control.

"Yes, there is something very wrong. Sonic has somehow manage to retrieve all the Chaos Emeralds!" he answered, his voice rising higher as he spoke those words. This came as a shock to me, but then I realized something that Tails had said to me back in Hydrocity. He had said that I would never get their "emerald-S". I had never heard of anyone ever recollecting any lost emeralds, much less all of them, within one day. It took years to be able to find the entrances to the dimension where the emeralds were went to. I thought about it for only a second, coming to the conclusion that the teleporters must have all been on the island.

As I looked up from my thinking, I was certain this time that I saw Metal Sonic's eyes glow brighter for just a second as he looked at me. Could the robot have it in for me for allowing Sonic to reclaim all the Chaos Emeralds again. I brushed the thought away. Logic told me that since Mecha had been with me for the entire day, there was no way that I could be held responsible since the robot had also allowed Sonic to reclaim them.

"So what if Sssonic has the emeralds again? We will just have to be craftier than he is," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik nodded slowly as he lifted his head.

"Indeed. Now that Sonic has all the Chaos Emeralds again, we will have to be smarter in order to win," said Robotnik. He then turned towards me. "Do you think you can do something to slow them down?" I didn't really know where they even were at the time, but I didn't want Doc to get angry again.

"No problem, Doc. Just leave it to me," I said, clenching my right hand into a fist.

"Very well. Mecha, stay with Knuckles in case he needs your help with something. I have a few modifications to make to my ship before I challenge Sonic again," said Robotnik. I didn't surprise me that Doc left Mecha there. After all, what better way to keep tabs on me. I still trusted him enough to allow the robot to stay. I had total confidence that Mecha wouldn't attack me, since he had no reason to. But the image of his eyes shining brighter for that brief second gave me enough of a worry to be sure and watch him more closely.

"Come on, Mecha. We need to find out where those two ended up," I said to the steel-blue robot. He hesitated as I walked in the direction of the roller coaster. "What's wrong with you?" I asked as I turned around to face him.

"Nothing that concerns you," he spat. He then looked up at the roller coaster. "I just don't exactly find this place very user friendly. I've experienced some of the worst horrors since my activation in this…amusement park." He then started to walk towards me and I started walking forward as well. I glanced back at him as we passed under the screaming roller coaster, noticing that he was watching it with a look of fear in his black and crimson eyes. I faced forward, smiling to myself.

"So, any ideas on how to catch them when they get here?" I asked.

"Yes, I do have a plan that might work. Does this place have any chilidog stands?" he asked, now walking along side me. I had to think about it. Since I don't eat chilidogs, disgusting things, I never had any reason to look for one in the carnival. But then I remembered the one that was near the Ferris wheel

"Yeah, there's one near the Ferris wheel. Why?" I asked. He looked over at me, his eyes casting their red glow on my face.

"We shall use Son- the hedgehog's favorite food against him. By luring him to the stand, it will put him in a situation where his guard will be down somewhat. This way, I can jump him with more surprise than if I were to attack him out in the open," he answered. I wondered if I had heard the plan right, because it really stunk compared to what I had in mind. Maybe that fear of the carnival was getting to him more than I had originally thought.

"You know, there might be a better way to…" That's as far as I got before Mecha looked at me, his crimson eyes as bright as headlights on a car. I immediately shut my trap when I saw how irritated he was getting. Better to have a bad plan than to end up on the robot's hit list. Metal Sonic returned his attention forward, his eyes toning down to their normal output.

"Come. We must prepare," he said as he started off in the direction of the giant Ferris wheel.

**********

"Man, check out all the cool rides!" cried an excited Tails as he and a now de-charged Sonic stood at the main gates to the carnival. The whole place had to be as big as Knothole, filled with rides and games galore. Sonic watched as the roller coaster flew high into the air during one of the loops.

"Yeah, but they're nowhere near as fast as what I'd like them to be," said Sonic. Tails looked at him with a smug face.

"It's always about speed with you. Try having fun without speed for once," said Tails. Now it was Sonic's turn to have the smug face.

"Hey, I've always felt that need for speed ever since I was able to break the sound barrier when I was three years old," said Sonic. Tails just shook his head and walked through the automatic counter and into the main area of the carnival. Before Sonic could even get through, Tails had started running towards the Carousel. Sonic watched as his friend climbed up onto a unicorn seat and rode the thing around for several rotations. Sonic walked over and climbed onto a sea serpent seat. While it was nowhere near the kind of speed he wanted, the ride was still fun never-the-less. After about five minutes of this, they both got off and started for the game area of the carnival.

"Hey, Sonic. I betcha I can get that middle cup before you can," said Tails as he and Sonic walked by a ball toss game. The whole thing was a board set with different colored cups all placed next to each other, so that the ball would skip across them and come to rest on top of one. There were a hundred cups; 85 colored white, ten colored blue, four colored red, and one colored gold in the middle.

"You're on!" said Sonic as he gathered up the twenty balls scattered about the floor inside the tent. He then gave ten to Tails and kept ten for himself. Tails tossed one out onto the cups. They went skimming across the cups, bouncing of the corners of some, then came to rest inside of a white one on the left side of the board. Sonic then tossed one onto the board, watching the ball bounce about and come to rest in a white one near the back of the board. Both of them couldn't help but smile as they both threw one at the same time, enjoying the short dance the balls made before coming to a rest in their cups.

**********

I looked up from my spying place behind the cotton candy stand near the ball toss game they were playing. I had left Mecha behind to execute his "plan" while I found out where they were. As I watched, I couldn't help but feel kind of happy myself, having always enjoyed the fun of the carnival when I was younger. I watched as they threw two balls each out onto the board, two of them coming to rest against each other just outside of the gold cup, one ball blocking the other one from entering. My rivalry with them subsided somewhat as I watched them move on to another game further down the strip. They just didn't seem like the kind of people who would be evil. I mean, they were having fun while me and Mecha were busy trying to stop them. A sudden buzz on my hand radio interrupted my thoughts, and I lifted it up to answer.

"Yeah, go ahead," I said. The radio crackled with static for a second, then cleared.

"Everything's ready on this side. Now just get them near the Ferris wheel so that they'll notice the stand," came Metal Sonic's voice over the radio. I still didn't think that Mecha's plan would work, but it was better than having the robot turn his attention towards me.

"Okay. See you in about twenty minutes," I said, breaking contact with him. I stood up and walked out into the open. I then whistled at the two friends as they were getting ready to play a game of ring toss. They both stopped and looked over at me. Sonic's eyes still had the fire of anger in them, and Tails was still afraid of me as I calmly walked out into the open.

"Hi Sonic, Tails. Enjoying the carnival?" I asked casually.

"What's it to you, Knuckles?" asked Sonic. I noted the fury in his voice, but kept my own voice level, trying to gain his trust.

"Nothing really," I said defensively. "I just wanted to know if you guys would like a tour of the place. After all, you have no clue where you two are going, anyway." Sonic relaxed slightly as he started to calm down.

"What's the catch? What kind of trap are you planning this time?" asked Sonic, with a bit of defensiveness in his voice. 

"No catch. I just feel kind of bad about how I've treated you," I said as I walked up to the ring toss tent, grabbed a ring, and tossed it at the bottles. I guess it was just luck, but the ring went around one of the bottles with a clink sound.

"Nice toss," said Tails as he walked up towards the tent to get a better look at the ringed bottle.

"Thanks, kid. It's just skill and a little luck," I said. Tails may have bought the scam I was pulling, but Sonic wasn't.

"I still think your full of it," said Sonic as he crossed his arms.

"Well, if you don't believe me, then I'll stay in front of your eyes the whole time I'm with you," I said, trying to sound friendly and insistent. Sonic looked from me to Tails, who was looking at him.

"Come on, Sonic. He seems a lot nicer now. I'm not even scared of him anymore," said Tails. I smiled inwardly. I still had that knack for being able to fool even the best of instincts in anyone. Sonic looked at me, then sighed.

"All right, you can join us, but just in the carnival. You come within two feet of my pack and you will regret it to no end," warned Sonic. I looked at his pack and noticed that it was glowing ever so slightly from within. Must be where he keeps the emeralds when he's not using them. I figured we'd just take them after we jumped them, so I let it slip my mind for the time being. As we walked around the carnival, I told them about what rides were where, how they worked, and ,for Sonic's sake, how fast they ran.

As we neared the Ferris wheel, Sonic suddenly grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the entrance to the Scrambler, a machine that sent you flying around in a seat in a way that the force from the movement of the ride would fling you to the side of the seat while it spun around in circles. I was a little reluctant, but I got on and sat in the seat that was behind Sonic, while Tails was in the seat behind me.

I had set the machine to spin for three minutes, then stop. As it started up, I could hear Sonic in the seat in front of me yelling for it to get into gear and really spin. Then the thing started to spin faster and faster. Behind me, I could hear Tails laughing and screaming loudly with delight as we spun around in circles. I had to admit, I was having quite a blast myself.

I flung my hands into the air and let out a yell of my own. In front of me, Sonic continued to yell at it to go faster. I watched as he suddenly leaped out of the restraining harness and ran along side of the machine. He then gripped the side of his seat and sped up, pushing the machine to go even faster. I heard Tails scream his approval of the now near sound breaking speed the machine was going at. I was even enjoying the rapidly spinning ride as I watched Sonic jump back into his seat.

"Now that's more like it!" he yelled over the rushing wind. I couldn't help but smile. Indeed, the ride was more fun the faster it spun. But within a minute, the timer went off and the machine slowed to a stop. We all climbed out, now slightly dizzy from the spinning. Well, at least me and Tails. I guess since Sonic could spindash, the spinning really didn't get to him like it did to us.

"Now THAT'S what I call a ride," said Sonic as he went out through the exit arch. Tails and I followed close behind. I was really starting to like hanging out with Sonic and Tails, but I still had my home to defend. But by this time, we were heading towards the Ferris wheel, and Metal Sonic. I still didn't want to see them dead, at least not yet. I guess it was good-natured side that took over at this point. I checked to make sure my radio was off, then I mock pointed towards the left.

"Sonic, I have to tell you something," I whispered. Sonic and Tails followed me out of sight of where Mecha was waiting. I then quietly told them about what Mecha was planning on doing.

"So I was right. This was a set-up!" whispered Sonic. I nodded, shame evident on my face. I looked at Sonic, not aware that my worry of how Mecha was going to react was showing on my face. He looked at me, then sighed.

"Well, since you told us about the trap, Tails and I will follow it through. We have an edge of Mecha now that you've told us about what he's planning," said Sonic. I nodded slowly.

"Sorry about misleading you," I said. Sonic then smiled at me.

"Hey, no biggie. You're all right for a rival," said Sonic. I couldn't believe he had called me a rival. I hadn't really thought about our conflict like that. We walked back out of the hiding spot, laughing like I had told them something funny. My eyes glanced towards the spot where Mecha sat in the shadows of a stand nearby, his eyes only visible if you looked really hard. He was watching me closely as we neared the Ferris wheel and the chilidog stand. It sent chills down my spine, but I didn't pay him much attention.

"Hey! A chilidog stand! All right!" cried Sonic, keeping to what he would normally say if he hadn't know it was a trap. He walked over and grabbed one of the freshly cooked chilidogs off the cart and took a bite. I watched Mecha out of the corner of my eye as his eyes lit up suddenly, his engine flaring behind him. He suddenly shot forward. Sonic was also keeping an eye on him. At the last possible second, Sonic turned towards Mecha and leaped over him, Mecha passing underneath.

I lunged at Sonic, who put the finishing touch on our joint trick as he spindashed lightly into my chest, knocking me to the ground, but not enough force behind it to actually hurt very much. By now, Metal Sonic had regained his momentum and was flying towards Sonic and Tails. I watched as they ran down the main trail and then broke off onto a side route, Mecha close behind. I then stood and brushed the dirt off my fur. We had pulled it off. I had repaid Sonic for the fun time and his help in tricking Metal Sonic into thinking that he hadn't known about the trap. I started off towards exit of the carnival, looking for a suitable place to rest for the remainder of the night, content that I had done my part for this encounter. Let Mecha and Robotnik finish it.

**********

Sonic and Tails ran down another side route as they tried to lose Metal Sonic in the maze of rides and games. Sonic then got an idea as he spied a game where there was a tennis ball cannon that you used to shoot down targets. Racing over to the game, he grabbed one of the cannons and swung it around to face Mecha, who slowed to a stop only two meters away from him and Tails.

"Back off, Mecha! This thing's, uh…a fusion cannon. One blast from this thing could put a gaping hole where your engine is!" said Sonic, trying to sound more confident than he was. Tails looked at Sonic with disbelief, trying to figure out what he was going to do with a tennis ball cannon. But Mecha didn't know it wasn't a real fusion cannon and started backing up.

"Very well, hedgehog. You have the edge now," he said as he took a couple more steps back. Sonic was getting braver the more Mecha backed up. Unfortunately, Sonic made the mistake of pulling the trigger on the cannon from excitement. A tennis ball shot from the cannon and flew at Metal Sonic, who ducked under the ball and watched it bounce away. He then turned his attention to Sonic, his crimson eyes bright with anger.

"You dare to try and make a fool out of ME!" cried Mecha as he started walking forward. Sonic pointed the cannon at Mecha and started firing off several rounds of balls. Metal Sonic tried to dodge the balls, but he was too close to really do any maneuvering. The balls struck him all over the place, some hitting him in his glass eyes, causing hair-line cracks to form on he lenses; others entering his engine intake and clogging up the air flow. As soon as the cannon was spent, Sonic grabbed Tails hand and took off, leaving a damaged Metal Sonic behind to re-stabilize his systems.

"That hedgehog will pay for this outrage!" shouted Mecha as he cleared the balls from his engine intake. He then took off after them, despite the difficulty in his visual sensors from the damaged lenses. He cruised along the ground, searching for any sign of his quarry. He then planted his feet in the ground, skidding to a halt as he saw them standing next to the roller coaster entrance. Remembering his encounter with it earlier in the day brought back the fear he had never wanted to feel again. He stood fifty feet away from the ride, not willing to take another step forward. Sonic was watching him with interest as he and Tails stood next to the entrance to he ride.

"Wonder why he stopped chasing us?" said Sonic aloud. Tails looked over at him, trying to figure out the answer himself. Then it hit him.

"He's afraid of the roller coaster. Look at how he's staring at us with that hatred look he always has, but he's unwilling to come any closer to the ride," said Tails. Sonic looked over at Metal Sonic with disbelief. Over the entire year he had been fighting the robot in combat, he had never seen him afraid of anything before, not even when he had fought him as Super Sonic.

"Well, what do ya know? Mecha's actually got a fear of something. Well, if he doesn't want to come near this ride, then I say we have some more fun before we start the chase again," said Sonic.

"You sure that's a good idea, Sonic?" asked Tails.

"Sure. If he's too afraid to come near the roller coaster, then he won't bother us while we're riding it," answered Sonic. Tails looked back at Mecha, who was still in the same spot, his eyes shining brightly with hatred.

"Okay, let's go!" cried Tails as he jumped into the roller coaster's second seat, Sonic taking a seat behind him. The safety bars clamped down on them as the cars started their trip to the top of the first hill. Metal Sonic watched them as the cars went over the side of the hill, accelerating the cars and causing the aerodynamics that had scared him stiff. Cursing to himself, he started to walk away from the ride, knowing that they would just continue to have fun while he was there. It was then that he noticed the main switch he had pulled that morning about a quarter mile down the path near the roller coaster. An idea crossed his mind as he walked back to the same spot. He watched the roller coaster as it did its final loop before coming to a stop. Sonic and Tails looked up from their seats to see Mecha still in the same spot.

"Well, he's still there. Want to go again?" asked Sonic.

"Sure!" answered an excited Tails. The ride started towards the first hill again. That's when Metal Sonic flew down to the switch and pulled it back to the off position. The lights around the carnival started winking out rapidly as the power was cut from the place. The roller coaster was halfway up the incline when it froze in place, the power no longer pushing it up the hill.

"What happened?" asked Tails. Sonic looked down to see a blue light heading towards them from about a quarter of a mile away.

"I'll give you three guesses," said Sonic. He watched as the light suddenly made a sharp turn towards the roller coaster. "And now he's not afraid of this thing one bit!" Tails started to panic as he started pushing up on the restraint, trying to get free.

"Don't waste your strength, little bro. I'll take care of this," said Sonic as he reached behind his head and grabbed two emeralds from his pack. He then clapped the two of them together, his blue flashing to hot yellow. Super Sonic pried the restraint off his lap, then flew over and pulled off Tails' restraint. Sonic looked at the blue light again, this time recognizing it as Metal Sonic with his enhanced vision, and he was within about ten seconds of reaching them. Sonic grabbed Tails and flew down and away from the pursing robot.

Sonic looked back to see Mecha trying to stay with them, his crimson eyes being the only source of light besides himself and the moon. Sonic then raced around one stand and deactivated the emeralds quickly so that Mecha couldn't track him by his glow. He then placed Tails into the relative safety of a nearby tent and told him to stay put until he got back. He then raced back out into the open. Metal Sonic had lost sight of him when he had de-charged himself, but now had him once again on his damaged visual sensors.

"So, you want to face me alone and without the emeralds. Good. I will enjoy this immensely," said Mecha as he faced Sonic.

"Like you could ever beat me, ya piece of junk," said Sonic. Mecha let our an angry shout, then charged Sonic, who dodged to the side. Mecha overshot him, tried to correct, but was knocked backwards from a spindash to the side.

"You fight well, Sssonic, but I am superior," said Metal Sonic. Sonic just stood in place with a smile on his face.

"If you are, then how come I beat you all the time?" he asked. Mecha charged him again, with the same results. But this time, Sonic's spindash caught him right in-between his left knee joint, causing the Mecha to lose his balance and fall to the ground, his left leg now crumpled inward by the attack. The robot activated his engine and rose off the ground, then turned and headed in the direction of the exit.

"You may have won this time, Son- hedgehog, but I will be back!" shouted Metal Sonic as he flew out of view. Sonic then walked over to the tent.

"You can come out now. He's gone," said Sonic. Tails walked out into carnival, his eyes having now adjusted to the dark.

"Boy, no matter how many times I see him, Mecha always sends a chill down my back," said Tails. Sonic nodded in agreement as the two of them started towards the exit on the opposite side of the park. They were almost there when they heard a familiar engine whine approaching them. Both of them turned around to see Robotnik's hovercraft approaching them, this time sporting a big brassy wheel on the underside, with what looked like huge glass balls placed in quarter increments around the wheel. The wheel was slowly turning with an even bigger glass ball held by the wheel. The wheel making a soft humming noise as it spun. Sonic and Tails spread out in different directions.

"Okay. Let's see what he does first," directed Sonic. He watched as Robotnik flew the craft into the middle of them, then dropped the giant glass ball in-between Sonic and Tails. Sonic went on the defensive. There was something that ball was supposed to do, and he had a feeling he wouldn't like it. It was then he noticed the humming noise get louder. It wasn't until his fur started to stick up that he realized what the new attachments were for. His answer came a second before the brass wheel and the ball started conducting electricity between the two of them. Sonic immediately felt a strong, electromagnetic pull occur as he and Tails started to get drawn towards the glass ball.

"Run, Tails!" yelled Sonic as he started running in the opposite direction. His feet didn't get much traction on the ground from the pull of the orb, which made him only slowly inch away from the strong pull of the machinery. Sonic then turn his attention to Tails. He wasn't as fast as Sonic, and there would be no way that his friend could stay away from the deadly electricity. His fears were confirmed as he watched Tails slowly get pulled towards the crackling electric current.

"You have a choice, Sonic. Give me the emeralds, or watch Tails become barbecue," said Robotnik, laughing loudly. But what Robotnik didn't know was that mentioning the emeralds gave Sonic an idea. Taking two emeralds out of his pack, he smacked them together above his head, his blue flushing to hot yellow. Super Sonic then turned his momentum around and shot straight towards the electromagnetic field. He then entered it, invincibility keeping the artificial lightning from electrocuting him. Sonic flew through the electrical storm and snatched Tails up in his arms just a fraction of a second before he touched the field. He then ran out of the range of the pulling force and set Tails down outside the carnival in the dense forest just outside the exit. Without saying anything, he turned around and headed back towards the craft. Robotnik was busy cursing as he lowered his ship to retrieve the ball and try again. He was so busy he didn't notice the glowing, yellow hedgehog heading straight for him. Super Sonic slammed hard into the side of the ship, knocking it on it's side and to the ground.

"Get out here, Robotnik! Now!" shouted an angry Sonic. He then walked up and placed his hands on the bottom of the ship, sending his invincibility into the ship's electronics for the second time that day. He was so preoccupied with exacting revenge on Robotnik for almost causing his best friend to die that he didn't notice the blue light heading straight for him. At the last second, Sonic caught sight of the light. But it was too late to get out of the way as Metal Sonic slammed into him at full speed, knocking him into the side of the nearby ring toss tent. The whole tent collapsed on top of Sonic, burying him in a pile of wood, glass, and fabric.

"Told you I'd be back, Sssonic!" said Metal Sonic. He then righted Robotnik's ship, detached the brass wheel, and they both took to the air. Tails had watched the whole scene from the safety of the trees. After Metal Sonic and Robotnik were out of view, he dashed to the fallen tent.

"Sonic! Are you all right!" cried Tails. The pile shook for a second, then Sonic emerged, stunned but unhurt.

"Boy, good thing I'm invincible or that would have really hurt," said Sonic. He started to reach out to de-charge himself, but saw the sleepy look of his companion's face and thought better of it. "You tired?"

"Just a little," he answered. Sonic looked about the area, but didn't see anything.

"Okay, here's the deal. I'm used to staying awake for days on end when I have to, but you're not. So I'm going to keep watch for the rest of the night while you get some sleep," said Sonic.

"Are you sure?" asked Tails.

"Sure. I mean, who better to watch over you than Super Sonic?" asked Sonic. Tails smiled and stretched out on a patch of thick grass nearby as Sonic took out a blanket from his pack and strung it over Tails. Sonic then flew up into a tree just a few feet away and sat down on a branch, his eagle-like vision enabling him to spy on a few flicky birds arguing back and forth about something a hundred yards away. The night went by without any more incidents. By morning, Sonic felt as though he had been placed in front of a large block of ice within the last couple of hours of his watch. How could it get so cold so quickly? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a yawning Tails as he woke from his sleep.

"Oh man! Who turned on the air conditioning?" asked Tails as he quickly wrapped himself in the blanket.

"I don't know. I was kind of wondering that question myself," answered Sonic. "I'll take a look around real quick and then I'll make us some breakfast. How does bacon and eggs sound?"

"Sounds great! I haven't had a good breakfast in a while," answered Tails. Sonic smiled as he leaped from his branch and flew high into the sky. He looked about the island to see what was causing the sudden drop in temperature over the night. There wasn't anything different that he could see. The now charred jungle landscape, the desert, the mountain range on the island. Sonic scratched his head in frustration. Realizing that the problem wasn't on the island, Sonic flew towards the edge of the island. When he got there, his eyes took in the giant mountains of the Ice Cap mountain range.

END OF CHAPTER 4


	5. Ice Cap

****

Chapter 5

Ice Cap

I yawned as I awoke from a most relaxing sleep. I had found a tall tree outside the carnival that had let me spread out quite comfortably on one of the long, thick branches. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, then nearly had the life scared out of me as they focused in on the image of Metal Sonic's face only half a foot away from my head. I let out a yell as I fell backwards off the branch. I watched the ground come flying up at me, then suddenly stop as Metal Sonic grabbed me by the leg and lowered me gently to the ground. Once I had my fear in check, I turned towards Mecha with an angry look on my face. His leg was repaired, having spent the night recovering inside the Flying Battery command ship that was floating on the edge of the north side of the island

"Why on Mobius did you do that!?" I yelled. I was sure that the steel-blue robot was amused by what he had just done, but he didn't let it show.

"Well, that was the most efficient way to make sure you rose with a start," answered Metal Sonic casually. I gave the robot an angry glare, then the sudden cool air of the nearby Ice Cap mountain range overcame the warm, tropical air of the island.

"Well, I guess we must have arrived at the Ice Cap range," I said, a little shiver to my voice as I tried to warm myself by crossing my arms. Being on a tropical island for so long, I wasn't used to the cold. I wasn't worried about someone spotting the island, since it was resting above the thick clouds just above the range. Then I saw Robotnik walk into the clearing, a look of disgust on his face.

"You! Where were you last night during the fight?" he asked. I began to panic. Did he know I had helped Sonic and Tails last night?

"Probably asleep," I said truthfully. "I usually go to sleep about the same time that your little crony here started chasing Sonic all over the carnival." Robotnik looked a little more understanding, but he was still pretty mad about the events that had happened in my absence. I made a passing glance at Mecha, who just started back with his crimson eyes, not allowing any emotion to show. I shuddered slightly, but not from the cold. Metal Sonic was seriously creeping me out. Not only did he seem to hate me, but the emotionless look he gave me now scared me more than when he had flashed his red eyes at me yesterday.

"So what now?" asked Mecha.

"Since we've arrived at my secret base here, we can get the part I need and then take a transport to Launch Base, then proceed by foot to the…project," answered Robotnik. I suddenly realized that I had no clue as to what in the world Robotnik was planning.

"Hey, Doc! Mind filling me in on what we need to get from here and what's at this 'Launch Base'?" I asked. Both Robotnik and Metal Sonic looked at one another. Mecha shook his head no, but Robotnik waved the suggestion away.

"The part I need from here is the focusing lens for a prototype laser cannon I've installed in a glorious robot of mine that is located inside the construction project which is on the site of Launch Base. What is at the base itself is a mechanical masterpiece that took me years to build. I started work on it even before I began my rule. It was halted when I was banished to the Void by Sonic and his band, but work resumed the same day I returned, and now it is ready for it's first flight. You'll see it when we get there," answered Robotnik. While what Robotnik said had me thinking, it still gave me no clue as to what was going on.

"Hey, Doc! If it's all right with you, I think I'll just stay up here for now. Radio me when you're going to move out and tell me which direction and how far to fly the island," I said. Robotnik looked at me curiously, Mecha still giving me that cold stare.

"How come?" asked Robotnik.

"Well, I'm just not used to the cold. Besides, I don't exactly want to leave my island unattended while Sonic and Tails are still running loose on it," I answered. Robotnik just nodded, then climbed into his nearby hovercraft and took to the air, followed closely by Metal Sonic. I followed them for three minutes before reaching the edge of the island. I then watched as they began descending towards the snowy peaks below. I shook my head, then started back towards the carnival to see if I could find a food stand with breakfast items in it.

**********

"Are you sure?" asked Tails as Super Sonic reached out and clapped two emeralds together, his hot yellow fading back to the normal blue.

"Yep. Knux stopped the island right above of the heart of the Ice Cap mountain range, and I saw Robotnik and Metal Sonic heading towards the largest of them," answered Sonic. He had been shocked to see the famous mountain range. From what he heard, the range was one of the most fun, but most dangerous, ranges to ski on. But it wasn't the slopes that had him worried. Robotnik had obviously told Knuckles to come here, but why? Sonic started to think, then decided he'd rather eat breakfast first before trying to figure out why Robotnik had gone down there.

Setting his pack on the ground, he dug through it until he pulled out a extra padded carton with four eggs inside and an eight strip package of bacon. He then started to look around for something to cook them on, but found nothing. Taking an idea from the other night, he pulled out the red emerald and set it on the ground. Next, he took a small frying pan out of a side pocket on his pack. He then tossed his pack a good ten feet away. Immediately, the red emerald started glowing even brighter as the distance between it and its cooling counterpart grew.

"How do you like your eggs cooked? I can't remember," asked Sonic, placing the pan on top of the red emerald.

"Over easy, same as you," answered Tails. Sonic then broke two eggs into the pan, which was fairly well heated on top of the scorching hot jewel. After a few minutes, he took the eggs out of the pan and placed them on a plastic plate Tails had taken from his own pack. He then set about cooking his own eggs while Tails chowed down on his. After Sonic finished off his eggs, he then cooked four strips of bacon for both him and Tails, which they ate with satisfaction. Sonic then grabbed his pack, took out the green emerald and set it next to the red one, then put both of them back into the pack. They then sat around for a good half an hour, trying to figure out the best way to find out what exactly Robotnik and Metal Sonic were doing down there.

"Well, I can fly down there and so can you if you go super," said Tails.

"True, but seeing a glowing, flying hedgehog might scare the people skiing," said Sonic.

"You're probably right," said a depressed Tails. They had been giving suggestions to one another for quite a while now, but Sonic suddenly broke the conversation with an idea.

"I know. I'll use that cannon over there," he said, pointing towards a cannon that had once been used in the big top for the act of being shot from a cannon. "If I spindash just right when I land, I'll be okay. Besides, there's a blanket of snow down there to cushion my fall, not to mention that I can use the emeralds if I don't think I'll land safely," said Sonic. Tails looked over at the cannon.

"Are you sure? It doesn't exactly look safe," he said.

"I have the emeralds, so I'll be fine. Besides, the speed with which this thing will shoot me out at is enough to actually make it fun," countered Sonic. Tails then sighed, defeated.

"Okay, I'll meet you down there," said Tails. He then twirled his twin tails and took to the air, heading in the direction of the nearby mountain range. Sonic watched him till he was out of sight, then walked over to the cannon. It was a self firing cannon, with a pull fuse that the person inside could use to launch themselves from the cannon. Sonic curled up and slid down into the cannon, one hand holding onto the launcher. He then gave the fuse a solid pull. The force of the explosion that the cannon gave off wasn't very big, but it was very loud. Sonic was shot out going close to breaking the sound barrier as he started a long curved arc towards the mountains below.

**********

I had finally found a stand that had the ingredients to make some pancakes and had started to mix up the batter when a loud explosion scared what little life I still had left in me after Metal Sonic's prank. I threw the bowl containing the batter into the air as I threw up my arms in surprise. I started to turn towards the sound of the explosion when the bowl fell onto my head upside down, covering my head in batter. Feeling very stupid and clumsy at this point, I threw the bowl off my head, wiped the batter off, and raced towards the source of the sound.

I ran about the carnival until I spotted the still smoking cannon. I immediately knew what had happened. I ran over to the edge of the island just in time to see the last visible portion of Sonic's blue color disappear into the white colored snow below. I thought about following him for a second, but held back. I wasn't sure how cold it was down there. I might have froze if I had gone down there. I pulled out the radio and sent a signal to Metal Sonic's comm unit. I really hadn't wanted to send the message to the robot, but I had no choice since the comm unit in Robotnik's hovercraft was still damaged from Sonic's earlier attacks. The radio crackled for a second or two as Mecha tried to lock onto the frequency.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice even and stern. Mecha sure held a grudge.

"I think you two might have company in a few minutes," I said into the radio. Silence for a second.

"Is it 'him'?" asked Mecha.

"Think so. He shot himself from the carnival's 'human bullet' cannon. I saw a hint of his blue color for just a second before he was out of sight," I answered. Silence for another second.

"Stay on the island. We will leave a little surprise for him and his two-tailed friend," answered Mecha. Then he signal cut out. I sighed as I looked down at the huge mountain range, then shivered again at the sight of the snow-covered tops. True, my island did have a couple of mountains that had snow on the tops of them, but I never went up them. Too much time to climb, I had always told myself. But the truth was that it was because of the fear of freezing up there.

I had experienced the snow and ice of the winter months only one time during my life about three years ago. And because I had been foolish enough to leave the island and venture out into the cold, I had become very ill by the time I had made it back to the relative warmth of my home almost a day and a half later. I had spent the next two weeks taking certain herbs to help with my sickness, but I had been bed ridden the whole time and unable to protect the island even if I had to. *Well,* I thought, *at least I knew that I couldn't be blamed if Sonic and Tails got the better of them this time.* I turned back and started back towards the stand to make another batch of batter.

**********

"So which slope do you want to hit first?" asked a black armadillo as he and a violet chameleon stood on the top of one of the highest mountains, their snowboards resting on the snow a few feet behind them.

"How about the expert slopes?" suggested the chameleon. The armadillo gave him an evil look.

"You sure you're up to it, Espio?" grinned the armadillo. Espio shot him the same look.

"I am if you are, Mighty," he said. At that moment, they looked up and then dove to the ground as they were almost dive-bombed by Tails as he came speeding down from the sky towards the mountain top. He landed next to them, tired from his recent flight.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" cried Espio as he stood up.

"Sorry, but I couldn't stay up in the air much longer," replied Tails.

"It's okay, just watch yourself next time," said Mighty. Tails nodded, then his eyes widen at the thing he saw heading right towards them.

"Down!" shouted Tails as he dove to the ground. Mighty and Espio turned around in time to see a speeding blur of blue heading right at them. They both dove to the ground once more, the blur passing just above them as it landed on Espio's snowboard.

"Hey! What's going on!?" shouted Sonic as he uncurled on top of the board. It was all he could do to get his feet in the restraints before he started speeding down the back side of the mountain. Espio and Mighty looked at one another, then stood up. Tails joined them as they started running over towards the side of the steep incline. What they saw was a runaway snowboard sporting a blue hedgehog who was trying desperately to avoid the trees speeding past him.

"Who does he think he is, taking my board without asking?" asked Espio.

"That would be Sonic the Hedgehog," answered Tails. Both Espio and Mighty turned towards Tails in disbelief.

"You mean that is THE Sonic the Hedgehog!?" cried Mighty.

"You bet," said Tails.

"Forget what I said," said Espio as he looked back down the mountain side, just barely making out the speeding snowboarder.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" asked Tails as he watched Sonic's out of control ride down the mountain side.

"Who knows? But if he doesn't stop before he reaches the end of that ledge further down the mountain, then he's going to go flying right into the side of the next mountain," said Mighty.

"You mean he's going to crash!?" cried Tails as he looked over at Mighty. Mighty slowly nodded.

"Probably. You see, this mountain rest right next to another mountain. The small area in-between them is nothing more than an entrance to a whole underground ice cavern. The problem is that if he doesn't stop, your friend Sonic will go off the edge of this mountain, hit the side of the next mountain, and then fall down into the cavern below," explained Mighty. Tails didn't even wait to hear if there was anymore to listen too. He jumped up and grabbed Mighty's snowboard from the ground, flew into the air, then attached his feet to the clamps and dropped down into the snow to pursue Sonic.

"Well, looks like you just lost your board, too," said Espio. Mighty let out a sigh, then turned to Espio.

"Yep. What do you want to do now?" asked Mighty.

"How about some hot chocolate down at the lodge," answered Espio.

"All right, but first I need to do something," said Mighty.

"What's that?" asked Espio. But before Espio could react, Mighty had made a snowball and had hurled it at Espio, who was smacked square in the chest. Espio heard Mighty let out a laugh before he made a dash towards the ski lift, Espio in hot pursuit.

**********

Tails sped after his friend, desperate to catch up to warn him before it was too late. Sonic, in the meantime, had finally gotten the snowboard under control, and was actually enjoying the fast paced glide down the side of the mountain. At one point, the mountain had a slight drop off of about 20 feet, and Sonic took full advantage of the drop, pulling off a triple flip before landing in the soft snow below. Tails followed only a few seconds after, but didn't pull any stunts. Sonic looked back when he heard a second snowboard smack the snow behind him.

"Hey Tails! Glad you could make it!" shouted Sonic over the howling wind. Sonic saw Tails mouth something, but couldn't make it out. Putting a hand up to his ear, he hollered, "What?" Tails cupped his hands over his mouth, then shouted what he had said as loud as he could.

"Sonic! Stop! There's a cliff about a hundred yards in front of you!" shouted Tails. Sonic barely heard him, but he had caught the gist of what Tails had said. Whipping his head around, he realized too late that he was already too close to the cliff to stop. Sonic flew off the edge, then closed his eyes and braced himself as he neared the side of the adjacent mountain. The next thing he felt was the tip of the snowboard slamming into the side of the mountain as the front end became stuck in the frozen rock. Then the board snapped in half from Sonic's weight, and he began to fall into the ice cavern below.

Tails, in the meantime, had stopped his snowboard right at the cliff's edge and watched helplessly as Sonic plummeted into the darkness below. He was about to fly down to see if Sonic was okay when a loud rumble caught the attention of his sensitive ears. Looking for the source of the sound, Tails glanced left, then right. But then he realized that the sound was coming from above. Looking up, he saw a huge avalanche of snow rapidly descending the mountain side, obviously caused by Sonic's impact with the mountain side. Tails quickly undid the restraining straps on the snowboard and leaped out of the way as the titanic mound of snow billowed over into the narrow pit of the ice cavern entrance. It last only about ten seconds, but the amount of snow that had fallen into the pit would be more than enough to bury Sonic alive if he was under it. Tails quickly wound up his double tails and flew down into the darkness.

**********

"Is everything secured?" asked Robotnik as Metal Sonic leaped out of the cargo bay of a transport they had rented from a nearby ski resort.

"Yes. It's all set and ready to be taken to Launch Base," said Metal Sonic.

"Excellent. I want you to take the transport there. I will follow you after I've radioed the echidna," said Robotnik. Metal Sonic nodded confirmation of his mission, then climbed into the pilot's seat and started the transport's engine. Robotnik watched as the twenty foot long craft eased into the air, then blasted from the hidden base. Robotnik walked over to his hovercraft and climbed inside. He had managed some repairs and now all that he needed to do was contact that echidna and tell him where to take his island. Reaching over, he punched in the frequency of Knuckles' radio. At first, nothing but static. Then the channel picked up the receiver, and the signal cleared.

"Come in, Knuckles," said Robotnik. There was a moment's pause, probably from Knuckles having to pick up the radio.

"Yeah, what's up Doc?" said Knuckles voice. Robotnik hear what sounded like chomping coming from the other end of the radio. *Probably just Knuckles having his own breakfast,* thought Robotnik.

"We're ready to head for Launch Base. I'm sending you the coordinates now," said Robotnik. He typed a few commands into the craft's computer, then waited for Knuckles response.

"Okay, got it. I should get there in about twenty minutes. Over and out," said Knuckles.

**********

"Sonic! Can you hear me?" shouted Tails. He had only been down in the cavern for a minute or two, but it was already creeping him out. And what was worse, Sonic had apparently been under the avalanche when it hit, as he hadn't answered Tails' calls. Tails continued digging through the snow, but was unsure just how deep Sonic was buried. Tails had been digging for a good five minutes when his ears caught the sound of crunching rock and ice. *Oh just great, what a time for Knuckles to decide to harass us!* thought Tails. The sound grew louder by the second, and Tails looked over at the wall off to his left. Then the wall crumbled away in a cloud of dust. Tails jumped back and tried to look brave, even thought he was feeling anything but that.

"Hey! Are you two down here?" cried a familiar voice. Tails immediately knew who the voice belonged to.

"Mighty! Over here!" shouted Tails. The black armadillo looked in his direction, then started running over to him. Following close behind him was the shape of Espio, who was complaining loudly about how cold he was.

"Hey Tails, are you all right?" asked Mighty. Tails ran into his arms, almost to the point of tears.

"I'm fine, but I think Sonic's been buried alive!" he cried.

"Stand back, kid. Let old Mighty take a whack at finding him," said Mighty. With those words, he dove into the pile of snow, rapidly tossing snow left and right as he burrowed into the snow pile. Tails and Espio watched Mighty disappear from view. They both waited, holding their breath for what seemed like an eternity. All of a sudden, the top of the snow pile burst outwards in a shower of snowflakes. Mighty's head appeared, then he climbed out with the body of Sonic slung over his shoulder.

"Found him!" shouted Mighty as he slid down the side of the snow pile, still lugging Sonic over his shoulders. He then laid Sonic on the ground. "He's half frozen. If we don't warm him up quick, he might freeze to death." Espio and Tails both looked around the cavern for any signs of wood to build a fire with, but nothing except snow and ice covered the floor and walls of the cave. Tails was about to give up hope when an idea struck him. He ran over to Sonic, placed him up against the wall, and laid down on top of him. He then wrapped his twin tails around Sonic's body.

"What are you doing, kid?" asked Espio.

"Trying to keep him warm. My fur coat is a very good insulator against the cold, and my body warmth should help as well," answered Tails. He spent the next half hour wrapped around Sonic like a fur blanket. In the meantime, Espio and Mighty had been busy digging further down into the cave. Tails had been telling them about their adventures on the Floating Island, how they had met Knuckles, and their battles against Robotnik and Metal Sonic. Espio had then remembered hearing something abut Robotnik supposedly having a hidden base somewhere real close by, so the two older Mobians had been digging further into the cave to try and find the base.

"…So then we left the island, and you know the rest," said Tails, finishing his story.

"Sounds like this Knuckles guy sure is a pain in the neck," said Espio's voice from down in their tunnel.

"Yeah, but sure does sound like someone I'd want to meet," said Mighty's voice.

"Why would you want to do that?" asked Tails.

"It's probably because he has no clue who the real bad guys are," said a new voice. Tails looked forward in surprise to find that Sonic's eyes were open.

"Sonic! You're awake!" cried Tails. Tails slid off of Sonic, who stood up, holding his head.

"Man, did someone get the license number of that hover-car?" asked Sonic. Mighty and Espio, hearing the new voice, had emerged from their tunnel.

"Oh good, you're awake," said Mighty. Sonic looked up at the black armadillo and violet chameleon. "Oh, where are my manners. My name's Mighty, and this here is my best bud Espio," said Mighty, pointing back at Espio. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Mighty extended his hand.

"Likewise. I'm Sonic," said Sonic, taking Mighty's hand and giving it a shake. "So what are you two doing down here, anyway?"

"Well, mainly saving you. Found you half froze. But the person who deserves the credit for saving you is Tails. He was the one who kept you warm. If he hadn't done that, then you probably wouldn't have made it," said Espio.

"Yeah, you've got a true friend in that little fox," said Mighty, looking over at Tails, who blushed slightly.

"Yeah, me and Tails have been through it all. And I couldn't think of anyone better to have shared those times with," said Sonic.

"Well, me and Espio need to get back to work. Hopefully, we can find that base in a few hours," said Mighty as he and Espio started back towards the tunnel.

"So how you feeling?" asked Tails as Sonic sat down next to him.

"Just fine, little bro. A little cold, but that can be expected down here," answered Sonic. They sat there for a few more minutes in silence, reflecting on everything that had happened over the last day and a half. Suddenly, a metallic bang sounded through the cave.

"Well looky at what we uncovered," said Espio's voice. Sonic and Tails both stood up, grabbed their packs, and started down the tunnel to see what was up. They walked for a few minutes before reaching Mighty and Espio, who were standing in front of what appeared to be a reinforced steel wall. Mighty placed a hand up on the wall.

"Must be at least six inches thick. No way I could break that down," said Mighty.

"Maybe not you, but I think I know someone who can," said Tails.

"Who?" asked Espio. Tails only smiled and looked over at Sonic. Sonic caught his gaze, then smiled himself. Reaching into his pack, Sonic grabbed the seven Chaos Emeralds out, four in his right hand, three in the left. He then smacked the seven jewels together, his blue flushing to hot yellow as the emeralds began orbiting his body. Both Espio and Mighty stared wide eyed with their mouths hung open as Super Sonic walked up to the wall.

Sonic looked it over for a few seconds, then flew backwards a good ten feet. He then curled up into a tight ball of spines and dove towards the steel wall. He connected solidly with it, leaving a huge dent in the side. It took another five hits like this, but the wall finally collapsed inward, revealing what appeared to be the remains of a recently abandoned laboratory and workshop. There were robot parts littered everywhere, some of which where bigger than even a Swatbot.

"Doesn't look like anyone's been in here for a while," said Sonic as he walked inside. Everyone else followed him in, letting Super Sonic lead the way in case there were hidden traps. As they walked through the lab, Tails spotted the main computer off in a corner.

"Hey Sonic, let me hack into his computer system. I should be able to find out when this place was abandoned and what exactly this base was for," said Tails. Sonic gave him a nod, and the four of them walked over to the computer. Tails went to work, breaking passcodes and bypassing firewalls left and right. After a few minutes, he began reading off what he had learned.

"This place was used by Robotnik as an experimentation laboratory where he designed weapons of mass destruction. Many projects were created in here, including the first design for Metal Sonic. But there is one weapon in particular which was created for the shear purpose of either taking over the whole planet, or just blowing it up. A weapon which is code named the Death Egg. In fact, the project has supposedly been completed," said Tails.

"You mean Robotnik has a weapon which could destroy Mobius if he wanted to!?" cried Sonic.

"Yes. But there's more. It says here that project Death Egg will be launching within two hours of now," said Tails.

"Your kidding!? Where?" cried Sonic. Tails punched in more commands as the monitor brought up a map of the surrounding area.

"Here," said Tails, pointing at a small area on the map near the ocean. "It's called Launch Base." Suddenly, thick sheets of solid titanium three feet thick came crashing down around all the walls. The computer screen went black and a picture of Metal Sonic's head appeared on the monitor.

"Surprise, hedgehog. You actually didn't think that we would let you find out about the Death Egg without there being some kind of consequence," said Metal Sonic's voice over the compound's PA system. Then the picture switched to one of a counter as it started counting down from three minutes. "You were a worthy adversary, hedgehog, but in three minutes, you will be no more. Enjoy knowing about project Death Egg while you can! Ha ha ha!" Sonic gritted his teeth, then brought his fists down onto the console, his enhanced strength enabling him to smash the computer with ease.

"What do we do?" cried Tails. The three older Mobians started scanning the room, looking for some way to escape. Mighty spotted a second ice cave that the titanium walls hadn't covered up. He dashed over to it, but the sides were so steep that there was no way they could climb down it. But he could feel fresh air rising from depths.

"There's a way out over here, but it's way too steep to climb down," said Mighty, pointing down the shaft. Sonic rushed over and looked down the shaft, also feeling midday air blow against his fur.

"Hey, how about we ride down the slope on this?" asked Espio. Both Sonic and Mighty looked over at Espio, who was pushing a steel block across the icy floor with ease.

"There's no way that can be safe. Besides, we don't know where this shaft leads," said Mighty as the timer reached 1 minute and 30 seconds. But Sonic wasn't listening to them. He was thinking about where he had seen Tails point at where Launch Base was.

"It might not be safe, but we have no choice except to ride this thing down the shaft. If I remember right, then this shaft should take us in the direction of Launch Base," said Sonic. The three other Mobians looked at one another, then climbed on top of the steel block. Sonic pulled the block back as far as he could, then pushed it forward slowly, making it inch along the floor. He then flew up on top of the block, deactivated the emeralds, and placed them back in his pack as the block inched ever closer to the edge of the shaft.

"Are you sure this is safe?" asked Tails.

"Too late to back out now!" cried Sonic as the block went over the edge. Everyone let out a yell as the steel block almost dropped vertically down the shaft, bouncing off the sides of the walls as it plummeted down. They had been falling for about 30 seconds when they heard a distant explosion sound from above. They all looked up in time to see a giant ball of fire come blazing down the shaft after them. They continued down the shaft for another ten seconds before hitting a 45 degree slope, which slowed them considerably, allowing the fireball to come within only meters of the back end of the block. Sonic and Tails watched the blaze inch ever closer to the back of the block, but Espio and Mighty spotted something else which they were more concerned about.

"Look! Up ahead!" cried Espio as everyone turned their attention to the front end of the block. About fifty meters in front of them was a row of ice stalagmites which blocked off the tunnel. Just a few meters beyond the stalagmites was the exit to the cave, which appeared to be in the side of the mountain far above the ground.

"Well, it's been nice knowing you guys," said Espio.

"Same," said Mighty. Just then, the block smashed into the stalagmites, breaking them off as the block continued on. Then the block flew from the mouth of the cave and became airborne. As soon as the block was clear of the cave's mouth, the fireball burst from within, jut barely missing them. The block started dropping rapidly towards the ground. But instead of the ground being far from them as they had thought, it sloped downwards at an angle that was unnoticeable from the cave. The block slid down the side of the mountain well over a hundred miles per hour. Sonic and Mighty crawled up to the head of the block, trying to steer it as it sped down the side of the mountain.

"Left!" cried Sonic as he saw a tree speeding at them from the right. Both of them gripped the front end and pulled hard to the left, the block following them. They continued like this down the side of the mountain for a good three minutes until Tails spotted something up ahead.

"Sonic! Mighty! There's a cliff ahead!" shouted Tails. Sonic and Mighty looked up to see that, indeed, the edge of a cliff was fast approaching them.

"Hang on!" cried Sonic as the block went flying off the edge. Everyone closed their eyes and braced for impact. The block fell a good fifty feet before slamming into the snow below. Everything became quiet for a few moments, then Sonic's head popped out of the snow, followed closely by Tails, then Espio and Mighty.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Sonic. Sighs and okays came from the rest of the group as they pulled themselves from the snow. Sonic brushed the snow off his fur, then looked around as he tried to get his bearings. He looked off towards the east and saw nothing but more snow. But a look towards the west revealed something which caused Sonic's jaw to drop. Tails, Espio, and Mighty all noticed the thing at the same time. About a half a mile away was a giant steel orb, easily taller than the biggest skyscraper on Mobius. The only thing distinguishable was that the front of the orb had Robotnik's ugly face on it, all the way down to the mustache.

"By the heavens of Mobius…" said Mighty and Espio at the same time. Tails whispered something which only Sonic caught.

"Yep. The Death Egg, which means that this is Launch Base," said Sonic.

END OF CHAPTER 5


	6. Launch Base

****

Chapter 6

Launch Base

"This thing is incredible…" I said as I followed Metal Sonic through one of the Death Egg's many corridors. Now I had thought I had seen a big ship when I had originally seen the Flying Battery battleship, but this thing was gigantic! It had to be at least a half a mile high!

"Yes, my master has spent many a year working on the Death Egg," said Metal Sonic as he led me into the control room. Sitting at the captain's chair in the middle of the room was Robotnik. He had his back to me and Mecha, and was stroking his mustache with his left hand.

"You've arrived. Good," said Robotnik. I walked up to the chair, which then turned around to face me.

"Yeah, but I still don't like the idea of leaving my island alone. I feel I should be up there," I said, not keeping it a secret that I wished to return to my home as soon as possible.

"Do not threat. I only need you for about an hour or so. I need your help in installing the lens into my new robot. Then you are free to go back to your island," said Robotnik. I nodded a yes, and then Robotnik stood up and walked out of the room. I followed, and Metal Sonic followed me. We walked down a few corridors, then went into an elevator. After we reached the docking bay, I followed Robotnik over to what was basically a giant robotic version of Robotnik himself. I didn't realize it, but my mouth started to hang open.

"Yes, I know exactly how you feel, Knuckles," said Robotnik. "It's one of my greatest creations." I looked over at Robotnik, who walked over towards a crane which had the lens attached to the hook. "Now I need you and Mecha to go up to the head and attach the lens to the cables inside." I sighed, hating the fact that I had to work with the blue robot again. Metal Sonic and I were really starting to get annoyed with one another, often snapping words back and forth. But we both cooperated as Mecha lifted me up to the head about ten stories up. The lens followed us up, and Mecha grabbed it, pulling it closer to us.

"Take the cables and attach them while I hold it in place," said Metal Sonic. I nodded, then crawled into the head of the robot. It took me a few minutes, but I finally found all the cables that needed to be attached. I crawled back out of the head, then set to work attaching the cables.

********** 

"So now what do we do, Sonic?" asked Tails as he stood between Mighty the Armadillo and Espio the Chameleon.

"Well, we can't very well attack this thing directly. We'd get killed before we could even get to it," said Sonic as he tried to think of something. Mighty and Espio joined the thinking, trying to come up with a possible solution. But it was Tails who snapped his fingers first as an idea came to mind.

"This thing is so big, it has to have one major propulsion system. I'll bet that if we could destroy or even disable even one engine, then it won't be able to maintain flight," said Tails.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't tell us how we can get close enough to try and take out the engines," said Sonic. Tails looked back at Mighty and Espio.

"Do you two think you can help us one more time?" asked Tails. Mighty looked over at Espio, who nodded his head.

"Sure, kid. We can help," said Mighty.

"Okay, here's the plan. Mighty and Espio will go and find some kind of explosive device and plant it somewhere on or near the engine housing. While you two are doing that, me and Sonic will keep the security busy," said Tails. Everyone gave a nod, accepting his plan of action.

"How do we let you know when we've planted the bomb?" asked Espio. Sonic reached into his pack and pulled out two radios that he had intended to use when they had first arrived on the island.

"You guys can reach us over this radio. We're on frequency 101.9," said Sonic. Mighty took the radio, gave Sonic and Tails a thumbs up, and then he and Espio took off towards the southeast to get around to the back side of the base without being detected.

"You ready?" asked Sonic.

"You bet!" said Tails. The two friends started off towards the front end of the base, and had only gone about a quarter of a mile before they set off the first security measure. A warning siren sounded as a robotic bird came flying out of a hanger hidden in the nearby mountain's side. Tails spotted it first; just barely dodging it as it dive-bombed him from above. Sonic heard the sound of its small engines and looked up to see Tails lock in an aerial chase with the robotic bird.

"Hang on Tails!" cried Sonic. He then ran off towards the nearby mountainside. Running up the side, he then leaped off and went into a spindash, slamming into the robot bird's head, causing it to go into a spiral as it fell towards the ground. It didn't explode when it hit the ground, but instead just came to rest in the snow. The two Mobians didn't notice it at the time, but the bird's internal camera was still sending back video information to Launch Base's main computer.

********** 

"There, I think that does it," I said as I connected the last of the wires to the lens. Metal Sonic looked it over before giving me a nod of approval. He then flew down to the floor below, leaving me up at the top of the robot to get down by myself. I sighed, then glided off the robot, landing next to Robotnik.

"Well done, Knuckles. I guess you can go back to your island now," said Robotnik. I turned to leave, but before I had even taken five steps, an alarm started blaring throughout the whole docking bay. All three of us ran out of the room and took the elevator back up to the main control room. Metal Sonic ran over to one of the computer consoles and started to search for the source of the alarm. Another ten seconds later, he turned to Robotnik.

"Sir, Robo Flicky 2X-36 has been taken off-line after engaging an intruder," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik looked at him with a rather confused look on his face.

"Who could it be? I thought you said you took care of the hedgehog and fox?" said Robotnik. Metal Sonic looked back at the console, double-checking the data before answering.

"It has to be them. The Robo Flicky's camera recorded a fuzzy picture of something blue and something orange running towards the base," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik let out a yell and brought both fists down onto his command chair.

"Blast that hedgehog! Put all security on alert!" cried Robotnik. He then turned towards me, fire in his eyes. "I want you to find those two before they can do any damage."

"Sure thing, Doc," I said. I then turned and dashed out of the room, glad that he wasn't having Mecha tag along for once.

********** 

Sirens blared all around the perimeter of Launch Base as Mighty and Espio made their way around the enormous compound. They had been about halfway to reaching the far side when the alarms had started. But they realized that they hadn't set them off when all of the Robo Flickies and Swatbots had taken off towards the front end of the base, leaving the backside almost completely unguarded.

"Looks like Sonic and Tails have their attention," said Espio as another Robo Flicky flew by overhead.

"Yep. Let's make good use of their diversion. They would hold their attention forever," said Mighty.

"Look, over there," said Espio, pointing towards an area of the base nearby. Mighty looked over to see what appeared to be a recently used construction site. "I'll bet there's some explosives of some kind there."

"You're probably right. Let's go," said Mighty. They both looked to see if the coast was clear, then they made a dash for the site. After they had looked around for a few minutes, Espio finally found what they were looking for.

"Hey Mighty! Is this enough?" asked Espio as he took a case of dynamite from the back of a hover-truck. Mighty whistled as he eyed the case.

"More than enough. Let's get this on that thing, pronto," said Mighty. The two friends started running towards the one elevator tower which looked like it went up to the engine housing area.

********** 

"Watch it! Another one's coming at you from above!" shouted Sonic. He then threw himself into a spindash and bounced off the body of a Swatbot, knocking it to the ground. They had just entered the base and were already having a tough time out-performing the security. Tails was busy doing his best to dodge the Robo Flickies while Sonic was busy trying to fight his way through the dozens of Swatbots that had shown up only minutes after their initial Robo Flicky attack.

"Sonic! There's too many of them! We have to get out of here!" shouted Tails as he dodged another kamikaze run made by a Robo Flicky.

"I know! Get down here and we'll outrun them!" cried Sonic, who started running further into the base. Tails started a dive towards Sonic, then pulled up next to him. Sonic reached out his hand and took Tails', then sped up even faster, breaking the sound barrier open with a sonic boom. The pursuing Swatbots and Robo Flickies soon fell so far behind that they had lost sight of them, and Sonic decided that they had reached a point far enough away to take a quick break.

"Man that was rough," said Tails as he slumped to the ground next to a giant glass tube with a metal door in the center. Sonic nodded in agreement as he sat down next to Tails.

"I hope Mighty and Espio had better luck getting by the security than we did," said Sonic. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the glass tube. Tails already had his eyes closed, but his ears suddenly perked up.

"Sonic," he whispered opening his eyes. "I hear something." Sonic opened his eyes and looked around, but he didn't see anything.

"I don't see anything," said Sonic. It was then he felt a faint shudder go through the glass tube. Turning around, he looked down the glass tube and saw a capsule coming towards them. Both of them backed up slowly as the capsule slowed down, coming to a rest in front of the metal door. Then the door whooshed open, revealing someone who they had hoped they wouldn't run into.

"Hello, Sssonic. I'm so glad you decided to join us," said Metal Sonic as he leaped from the capsule, his engine blasting him forward. Sonic grabbed Tails hand and jumped to the side, just barely missing Mecha's charge. Sonic then dove into the capsule as Metal Sonic made a turn around. The capsule started spinning rapidly in place as Sonic tried to keep his eyes on Metal Sonic. He couldn't see him from the speed by which the capsule was spinning, but he could hear the steel-blue robot tossing curses left and right. Then the capsule shot upwards, taking them up three stories to the next area of the base.

"Boy that was close," said Tails as they jumped from the now parked capsule.

"Yeah. I guess we'd better keep moving before Mecha decides to join us," said Sonic. They both started running further into the base, both hoping that Metal Sonic would be a little while in catching up.

**********

I had been walking around the perimeter of the base for about a good fifteen minutes trying to find some trace as to where Sonic and Tails had gone, but the only thing I had come across was the sparking remains of some Swatbots and Robo Flickies. I decided that they had already entered the base, and started back towards the Death Egg to report in. I was preparing to walk around from the back end of the battle station to the elevator lift which lead to the main docking bay when I noticed to small figures doing something up near the engine housing. This set off an alarm, as I was pretty sure that Robotnik had already checked the engine housing way before I had even arrived on base.

"Hey you two!" I yelled up at them. They both continued with their work, not paying me any attention. Either they hadn't heard me, or they were ignoring me on purpose. I yelled up at them again, this time getting a response as one of them waved at me. I waited patiently as the two figures walked calmly into the elevator lift and rode it back down to my level. The doors opened to reveal a black armadillo and a violet chameleon.

"Hey there. What are you doing here?" asked the chameleon in voice that suggested he found me as suspicious.

"Tell me what you're doing here," I said. The chameleon looked over at the armadillo, who then looked at me.

"Listen here, Red. All I know is that we were supposed to do a final maintenance check on the engine housing before take-off. And I don't remember you working here before," said the armadillo. I suddenly felt embarrassed. These two were only doing their job, and I had blamed them for something before even finding out what their story was.

"Sorry, I've just been kind of edgy with people lately," I said, extending my hand to the armadillo. "My name's Knuckles." The armadillo took my hand and gave it a shake.

"The name's Mighty. It's a pleasure to meet you Knuckles," he said. "And this here's Espio." I took the chameleon's hand and gave it a shake.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone to your work. I need to get back to the control room," I said. Mighty and Espio waved their good-byes as I walked away. Five minutes later, I was up in the control room with Robotnik. I had forgotten all about asking him if those two should have been there the second he had started ranting and raving about the room after I had told him I hadn't seen Sonic or Tails.

"I can't lose now that I'm so close to winning!" cried Robotnik. I stood silently out of range of his anger as he continued to pace back and forth. After a few minutes, he sat back down in his chair. After I was sure he was done with his fit, I approached him.

"Hey Doc. I'm going back to my island. I have this funny feeling that Sonic and Tails will go back there very soon," I said. Robotnik scoffed, then looked up at me.

"Some kind of ancient echidna telepathy?" asked Robotnik sarcastically.

"It's just a feeling. One I'm pretty positive will happen," I answered. Robotnik waved his hand as he dismissed me. As I walked out of the control room, the station's PA system spoke up.

"Death Egg countdown at twenty minutes and counting," said the computer voice.

**********

"Where exactly are we going?" asked Tails as Sonic sped through the base. For some odd reason, all the security seemed to have vanished. Nothing had attacked them for the last five minutes. Suddenly, Sonic's radio crackled to life and Mighty's voice sounded out from within.

"The bomb's in place. Once this thing tries to fire its lateral thrusters, boom!" said Mighty's voice.

"Good work, you two. I don't think there's anything else you can do, so get out of here before you get spotted," said Sonic.

"Sure thing, and good luck," said Mighty as the radio cut out. Sonic let out a sigh, then looked over at Tails.

"Well, looks like we did it," said Sonic. Just then, the sound of metal hitting concrete caught both of their attentions. They both whipped their heads around just in time to see Metal Sonic approaching them.

"You didn't really think you could get away that easily, did you hedgehog?" said Metal Sonic. Sonic didn't waste any time as he grabbed Tails hand and dashed off, Metal Sonic in hot pursuit. The chase continued all across the east side of the base until Sonic saw something that might stop Mecha.

"Hang on Tails!" cried Sonic. He pulled Tails in front of his chest, then curled up around him in a spindash. Trying his best not to have any part of Tails in the way, he slammed into a large plastic pipe, smashing through it and ending up inside a maze of he pipes where Metal Sonic couldn't follow without getting soaked. Sonic uncurled himself to find a dazed Tails clutching onto him with an expression of pure terror in his eyes. Sonic took a quick glance back to see that, indeed, Metal Sonic had stopped chasing them and was watching them through the pouring water.

"Tails? Are you all right?" asked Sonic as he pried Tails of him. The young fox slumped to the ground and let out a loud breath of air. He then looked up at Sonic, giving him an angry glare.

"You know, you could warn me before you do something like that again!" cried Tails.

"Sorry, but at least it worked," said Sonic, pointing back at Mecha who was still staring at them. Tails looked around to see that there was no way to get around the pipes to escape.

"Yeah, great work," he said sarcastically. "Now just where are we supposed to go?" Sonic thought about it for a moment, then an idea hit him.

"Take a deep breath and don't let go," said Sonic as he took Tails' hand. Tails had a good feeling he knew what Sonic was planning, and he didn't like it.

"You can't seriously be thinking of doing that!?" he cried. Not waiting to see if Sonic would confirm his guess, Tails took a deep breath and gripped Sonic's hand even tighter. Sonic then plunged into the rapidly flowing water and was immediately swept into the large pipe, Tails being pulled in behind him. Metal Sonic watched them disappear, then keyed his Comm link.

"Sir, they got away again. They went into one of the water pipes. There's no way to tell where they'll end up," said Metal Sonic.

"Forget them. It's too late for them to do anything to stop the Death Egg's launch. Come on back," said Robotnik's voice. Sonic's and Tails time in the pipe didn't last more than a few seconds, but the ride was intense as the pipe twisted and turned in all directions. Then they were spat out as the pipe ended, leaving them lying on top of a much larger pipe wide enough to allow them to sit side by side with not threat of falling off.

"Well, that wasn't that bad," said Sonic. Tails just gave him a glare as he stood up and shook the water from his fur. Sonic did the same thing, and then the two friends continued their trek through the base.

"You know, while I'm sure that Mighty and Espio put those explosives where they needed to go, I still think we'd better stick around at least until that thing launches. If the explosives don't bring it down, I'll have to inflict a bit of Super Sonic damage," said Sonic.

"That might be a good idea," said Tails. The two Mobians then started heading for the Death Egg itself, intent on catching a ride if necessary.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust after the blinding flash was done, but I didn't care. It was good to be home. I looked down from the edge of the island to see the immense Death Egg preparing its launch sequence. I didn't know why at the time, but just looking at the giant battle station sent a chill down my spine. It was if the thing pulsed evil from within. I shuddered, then started on my trek back to the interior of my home. I figured I would make a stop at Mushroom Hill before I went back to my steering spot. I always enjoyed a walk through the giant mushroom forest when I found the time.

********** 

"Sir," said Metal Sonic as he looked up from a console. "I spotted the hedgehog and fox. They're heading for the underbelly of the Death Egg." Robotnik snapped upright. How could they be so close to the Death Egg?

"What's their ETA?" asked Robotnik. Metal Sonic looked over the console then turned back to him.

"ETA three minutes," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik slammed a fist down onto his armrest. It was too close. The Death Egg would launch just as soon as they made it to the underbelly. Robotnik stroked his mustache as he went into a deep thought.

"I will deal with them personally. Let them reach the underbelly, and their demise," said Robotnik as he got up and walked out of the control room.

**********

"Come on, Tails! I can hear that thing's engines powering up!" cried Sonic as he ran towards the underside of the Death Egg. Tails tried his best to keep up, but Sonic was just too fast.

"Go ahead!" shouted Tails. "I'll catch up as soon as I can!" Sonic gave him a thumbs up, then sped up even faster, breaking the sound barrier open. They were almost there, only a quarter of a mile left. Sonic was suddenly jolted as the vibration from the Death Egg's engines firing shook the whole base. Sonic went into a flat out run. He knew he wouldn't be able to get inside the thing now, but he didn't care. He just wanted to be somewhere on the thing when it left the docking bay. Now running at almost Mach 2, Sonic saw that a platform was hanging by two poles from the underside of the battle station. The only problem was that the Death Egg was lifting off the ground and moving out over the water.

"Oh man, this is gonna be close!" cried Sonic as he reached the edge of the water. He then jumped as hard as he could, the momentum of his speed sending him almost fifty yards across open air. Sonic curled up into a ball as he fell towards the platform below, landing with a thud as he rolled across its surface. Uncurling, he quickly stood up. He had made it. He looked back at the shore to see Tails flying his fastest to catch up. It took him a few seconds, but he made it as well.

"Phew!" breathed Tails as he tried to catch his breath. "Guess we made it."

"Yeah, now let's just hope that those explosives do the trick," said Sonic. But he noticed that Tails wasn't paying any attention to him. Instead, he was looking off to the side, his eyes wide with terror. Sonic looked over to see Robotnik, once again in his hovercraft, staring them down. He had really gone all out this time. The hovercraft supported two giant arms and the top was covered in sharp spikes.

"Well look who decided to join the party," said Sonic. "Spread out and look for a weakness." Tails went left while Sonic went right, the two of them keeping their distance and waiting for Robotnik to make the first move. He suddenly fired his craft's engines, blasting towards Sonic, who in turn leaped to the side, just missing the grasp of the two hands. The craft slowed, then made an about face and headed towards Tails. Tails tried to dodge the machine, but he wasn't fast enough. The hands locked around his small body and lifted him off the platform.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" cried Sonic as he spindashed at the machine, slamming into the right arm and knocking Tails free from its grasp. Unfortunately for Sonic, he hadn't realized that Robotnik had planned for him to do that. As soon as he had dropped Tails, he whipped the craft around and grabbed Sonic with the hands.

"You foolish hedgehog," said Robotnik's voice from a speaker on the hovercraft's front end. "Did you really think you could win?" The machine then lifted Sonic up into the air and then flung him to the platform below. Sonic landed hard on his side, sending a wave of pain shooting through his body. The hovercraft then curled the hands into fists, and then almost went into a free-fall as it prepared to slam the fists into Sonic. But before the craft could even get within fifty feet of him, the lateral thrusters on the Death Egg fired, causing the explosives to go off. The resulting explosion rocked the entire battle station, and also caught the attention of Robotnik.

"No…Noooo!" he cried. Sonic looked up to see his enemy was distracted. Reaching into his pack, he grabbed two of the Chaos Emeralds, then struck them together, his blue color flushing to hot yellow. The pain faded as the invincibility flooded through his body. Super Sonic then stood up and then took to the air, flying at top speed towards the bottom of the hovercraft. Robotnik was so preoccupied with the explosions ripping his beloved battle station's engines apart that he had totally forgotten about Sonic. So he was taken off-guard when something crashed into the craft from below, causing the hovercraft to go careening out of control. Curses flew from the speaker on the hovercraft as he detached the two arms and flew out from under the now slowing Death Egg.

"Serves you right," said Sonic as he landed on the platform.

"Sonic! Look!" cried Tails' voice. Sonic turned around to see that the explosions from the engine had also shaken loose one of the poles. The other pole was creaking as it tried to remain attached to the underside of the Death Egg.

"Great," muttered Sonic. He dashed over and took Tails by the hands, then leaped from the platform the second the other pole snapped, sending the platform tumbling towards the ground below. Sonic then flew as fast as the emeralds would let him out from under the now falling battle station.

"Well, looks like we did it," said Tails as he twirled his twin tails to float next to Sonic. Sonic was about to agree when he noticed where the Death Egg was going to fall.

"Yeah, we did it all right. The Death Egg's going to land right on the Floating Island," said Sonic. Tails looked and also saw the patch of land just below the plummeting Death Egg.

"Sonic, the damage to those engines are repairable. He could have them up and going again in only a day. I thought it would have hit the ocean, which would have sunk the thing. But since it's crashing on the Floating Island, then we need to go there and finish the job," said Tails. Sonic let out a sigh.

"Guess our work's never done. All right. All aboard for the Floating Island," said Sonic as he went into a nosedive, Tails following right behind him.

END OF CHAPTER 6


	7. Mushroom Hill

****

Chapter 7

Mushroom Hill

Ah, the smell of giant mushrooms in the middle of the day! I loved taking a walk through the giant mushroom forest, if even for a little bit. I sat down under one of the tall mushrooms, resting in the shade. I then closed my eyes as I thought about everything that had happened over the last day and a half. But something didn't seem right. For some reason, I kept having the feeling that something major was going to happen very soon. Something that would change my life for good. I tried to relax, but the feeling made it really hard to do so. I finally got to a point when I felt as though I couldn't get any more relaxed when I heard a sound that jarred my eyes open. Then my mouth opened wide at the sight I saw.

"By the heavens of Mobius!" I cried as I watched the mammoth Death Egg, it's engines awash in flames, come falling down right towards the island's mountain range. I watched it gain speed, the face on the front leading the fall. I suddenly realized something. The force that would be behind the Death Egg when it hit would be more than enough to knock the island into the ocean and more than likely sink it. Thinking fast, I pulled the miniature Master Emerald from my shoe and held it at arm's length.

I already knew I couldn't get the island out from underneath the battle station before it hit, but maybe if I tried to hold the island up by sheer force, I might stop it from hitting the ocean. I braced myself as the Death Egg came within a few hundred meters of the mountains. Then it struck, sending a shock wave shooting throughout the whole island as it started to fall to the ocean below. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes tight as I manipulated the power of the Master Emerald, trying desperately to keep the island aloft.

"Come on, come on," I kept whispering to myself. The island's descent was already slowing, but I was unsure if I could stop it before splash down. Every muscle in my body strained as I concentrated on stopping the island's fall. It took a few seconds more, but finally the island's descent stopped. I collapsed to the ground, all the energy gone from my body. I sat there a few minutes getting my strength back. After I was well enough to stand, I walked over to the edge of the island. I let out a whistle. The bottom tip of the island was only about a hundred meters above the water.

"Man, that was too close," I said to myself. Suddenly, the radio I had left back at the mushroom started beeping loudly. I ran back to it and keyed the talk button.

"I'm here. What in the world happened!?" I cried into the radio.

"That blasted hedgehog planted some kind of explosives on the engine housing!" cried Robotnik's voice over the radio. I suddenly remembered seeing the two suspicious Mobians working on the engines just before the launch. I cursed to myself in my mind. I should have gone with my instincts!

"Are you two all right?" I asked. Silence for a second, then…

"We are fine, no thanks to YOU!" said the voice of Metal Sonic. I let out a groan. Why did that robot always seem to put the blame on me even if it wasn't my fault? I then keyed the radio.

"Listen, Mecha. I had no clue this was going to happen, and I'll bet you didn't either, so just LAY OFF!" I hollered into the radio.

"Both of you just be QUIET!" shouted Robotnik's voice. "Now look. We can fix the engines within a day or so, but I'm willing to bet that Sonic and Tails are going to try and finish the job before we can fix this thing. Knuckles, I'm giving you the job of stopping them before they can get to us." I sighed. If what Robotnik said was true, then they would be back on the island, and my home once again.

"You got it. I'll be happy to throw them from the island," I said.

"Good. I will be out of radio contact at least until the repairs are made, over and out," said Robotnik's voice.

"And you had better do the job right this time, or you will have to answer to me. Over and out," said Metal Sonic. I looked up to where the Death Egg had landed. It had hit the biggest mountain in the range, which was the one right next to Hidden Palace. I took the miniature Master, rubbed my hand over the top, and then threw it to the ground. The glowing ring teleporter appeared and I stepped in. Once the flash ended, I was standing in the presence of the Master Emerald. Everything looked fine except for a few rocks that had fallen from the roof during the Death Egg's crash.

"Well, at least the palace didn't suffer any real damage," I said to myself as I reopened the ring teleporter. I jumped inside, reappearing in a small cave. I ran over to the entrance and glanced about. I had this strange feeling that someone was watching me, but I didn't see anyone. Shrugging, I walked out of the cave and started off to try and find Sonic and Tails.

********** 

Super Sonic flew even deeper into the giant mushroom filled forest, Tails following close behind.

"So where exactly are we going?" asked Tails.

"I guess we should start here. Robotnik probably thinks we'll make a direct attack against the Death Egg while it's downed, so he'll have all his forces guarding it. I can't take on that many Swatbots even as Super Sonic," said Sonic. The two continued flying a few meters above the ground till they reached the edge of a small cliff. Sonic raised a hand as he suddenly stopped. Tails flew up beside him and started to ask why he had stopped. Sonic raised a finger to his mouth to indicate for Tails to talk quietly.

"Why did you stop?" he asked in a whisper. Sonic pointed down to the ground below. Tails looked down to see the head of Knuckles sticking out from a cave entrance directly below them. "What's he doing?"

"I don't know," answered Sonic. They watched as Knuckles shrugged to himself, then started walking off further into the dense mushroom forest.

"Wonder what's in the cave," said Tails. Sonic shrugged himself. After Knuckles was out of view, Sonic flew down to the entrance to the cave. Reaching out, he struck two of the orbiting emeralds together, his hot yellow coloring fading back to the normal blue. Tails then landed next to him.

"Let's find out," said Sonic. Putting all but the white emerald back into his pack, he walked into the cave, the white emerald providing light. Tails followed behind him, sticking very close to him in case it was a trap of some kind. Tails then noticed something that neither one of them expected to see.

"Sonic, look! Another ring!" cried Tails, pointing to the spinning ring. But something was different about it this time. "Why is it glowing?" Sonic looked at it closer, then also notice the glow it was giving off that it hadn't before.

"Don't know. Why would another ring even appear for us anyway? We already have all the Chaos Emeralds," said Sonic. Tails shrugged.

"Maybe it's a fluke," he gestured. Sonic put the white emerald back into his pack.

"Well, let's find out!" cried Sonic, grabbing Tails' hand and jumping into the ring. There was a flash of white light, and then they found themselves standing in a cave covered in crystals with seven pillars surrounding an eighth one that was a little bigger than the rest.

"Whoa!" said an amazed Tails. "Check this place out!" Sonic and Tails looked about the cave. The whole place seemed to glow with a light all its own. Sonic then spotted something that caused his mouth to hang open. Tails noticed him, and followed his gaze up. Then he saw it as well. Sitting on the central pillar, the base surrounded by glowing crystals, was a giant green emerald. It glowed brighter than all seven Chaos Emeralds put together, and it was huge. It had to be at least four feet tall!

"Man, now that is what I call an emerald," said Sonic. Tails just nodded in agreement. Sonic then noticed some kind of writing engraved on the side of the central pillar. Bending down, he tried to make out what it said. It was in Old Mobian, which wasn't one of Sonic's best languages. "Hey Tails. Can you read this?" Tails walked over and bent down to try and read it.

"I can make out a few words," he said as he moved his finger across the stone surface. "I see the words 'Master Emerald', but I can't make out the rest."

"I guess the Master Emerald must be that big one on top of the pillar," said Sonic. He climbed up the pillar and reached out to put his hand on the emerald. But as soon as he touched the glassy surface, he was knocked to the ground by some unseen force. Then the giant emerald on the top of the pillar glowed even brighter than before, almost blinding them. When the light died down enough for them to see again, they saw the seven Chaos Emeralds circling the Master Emerald.

"What's going on?" asked Tails.

"I have no clue," said Sonic. All of a sudden, the emeralds flashed their respectable colors, then disappeared. Seven rays of white light fell down on the other pillars. When the light died, each pillar supported a gray jewel about 3/4 the size of the Master Emerald.

"What in the world are those?" asked Tails.

"They look like giant versions of the Chaos Emeralds, only they look dead," said Sonic. He walked up to the nearest gray emerald and placed his hand on it. A blast of white light emitted from the dead jewel, engulfing Sonic and Tails. When the light died down, they found themselves back in the sphere dimension where they had found the Chaos Emeralds.

"Guess we have to collect the emeralds all over again," said Sonic. The two of them started collecting blue spheres left and right, picking up rings as they appeared. When they had grabbed the last blue sphere, the green Chaos Emerald appeared. Sonic reached out and snagged it as they were swallowed by another flash of light. When the light died, they were back in the cave.

"Well, now what?" asked Tails. Sonic started to put the green emerald back into his pack when it jumped out of his hands. It hung in the air for a few seconds, then shot a beam of green light at the giant emerald Sonic had touched just before they were taken to the sphere dimension. Sonic and Tails watched in awe as the dead jewel suddenly burst into a bright green glow just like that of the green Chaos Emerald.

"Tails, do you know what these things are?" asked Sonic.

"No, what?" said Tails.

"I think these are the Super Emeralds," said Sonic. Tails suddenly took a deep breath.

"You're kidding," said Tails. Sonic shook his head no.

"These have to be. The Master Emerald, the Chaos Emeralds causing these big emeralds to appear, and the green emerald charging the larger version of itself. It only makes sense," said Sonic.

"But I thought the Super Emeralds were just a legend," said Tails.

"I guess the legends aren't legends anymore," said Sonic. As soon as he finished saying that sentence, they were both engulfed by another flash of light. When this one died down, they were once again standing in the cave that the ring teleporter had been in.

"Well, now what?" asked Tails as they walked out of the cave. But something had changed outside since they entered the cave. "Uh, Sonic…Why do all the mushrooms look like they're dying?" Indeed, the mushrooms had turned from a vibrant red to a dull brown.

"I don't know, but I'll bet Robotnik's behind it," said Sonic as he balled his hands into fists. He had had enough. Destroying this beautiful forest was the last straw. "Come on. We're going to stop whatever's causing this." Sonic took off, the wind caused by his speed kicking up a bunch of dead leaves as Tails flew after him. But they had only gone about a half a mile when suddenly Sonic tripped and fell over. Tails saw him fall, then suddenly he stopped as well, becoming tangled in a web of vines.

"Sonic, I'm stuck!" cried Tails as he tried to break free from the thick vines.

"I know, I'm stuck too," said Sonic, who was also stuck in a bunch of thick vines. Sonic struggled to get free, but to no avail. He tried to spindash himself free, but he was in an awkward position and was unable to curl up into a ball. Suddenly, Tails sensitive ears picked up a noise.

"Quiet," said Tails.

"Why? What is it?" asked Sonic.

"I hear something," said Tails. Sonic listened as well, then also caught the sound. And it was one he knew well.

"Oh great! One of Robotnik's robots!" cried Sonic. He renewed his struggle to get free from the vines, but he only succeeded in only getting himself more tangled. Then he saw it. The robot looked like a lumberjack with jets instead of legs and it carried a huge axe over its left shoulder. Sonic was a little worried that it would get to them before they could get free, but the worry melted away and gave room to an idea on how to get free from the vines.

"Hey ugly! Over here!" shouted Sonic. The robot lumberjack turned to the sound of Sonic's voice, then flew over towards them.

"Sonic, is it just me, or have you COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MIND!?" cried Tails.

"Maybe, but it might be the only way to get free of these stupid vines," said Sonic. By now, the robot was only a few meters away. It raised its giant axe back to swing down at Sonic, just like he had thought it would. Now if he could time it just right. The robot swung the axe down hard, the blade aimed right at Sonic's head. Then, at the last possible second, Sonic shifted his position in the vines, the blade missing him and cutting right through the vines holding him down.

"Oh yeah, the hedgehog's on fire!" cried Sonic as he jumped up at the robot. He bounced a kick off the robot, knocking it backwards into a nearby tree. Sonic landed ten meters away from the robot, and prepared to charge it. The robot flew around to the other end of tree, pulled back his axe, and swung it into the tree, chopping off the tip of the tree's top. The chopped off tip flew down at Sonic.

"Oh boy!" cried Sonic as he leaped out of the way of the log. Then he dashed at the robot as it prepared to chop another section of the log off. Curling up into a ball, he spindashed at the robot, slamming into the left side and knocking the axe free from its hand. The robot spun wildly as it tried to equal out its weight from the loss of the axe. Sonic took the robot's lack of attention to his advantage, spindashing into the robot's rear engines.

His rapidly spinning quills punctured the fuel line, causing the robot to start spraying gasoline everywhere. It spun even more wildly as it started losing power to its systems. Sonic then leaped high into the air and spindashed into the robot's head, knocking it off the body. The now under-powered robot went into a nosedive and slammed into one of the tall mushrooms, knocking the giant mushroom over to the ground. With the robot no longer a threat, Sonic ran over to where Tails hung from the thick vines.

"You know, you take too many chances," said Tails, shaking his head.

"Maybe, but if I didn't take chances, then my life would be really boring," said Sonic. "Now hold still." Tails closed his eyes as Sonic leaped up and went into a spindash, cutting through the thick vines with his quills. Once Tails was free, they set about trying to find what was causing the forest to die. After emerging from a tunnel in the side of a hill, they were shocked to see that the mushrooms were getting worse, as they were now a pasty white color.

"We'd better hurry, no telling how much longer these things will last," said Sonic as he started to run through the forest. He rounded a corner, then stopped. Tails also stopped when he saw what was in front of them. It was some kind of satellite dish, and it was emitting some kind of signal, which was evident by the beeping it was making.

"I'll bet that's what's causing the forest to die," said Sonic. They both ran over to the device, which was only a few feet taller than they were. Tails looked over the controls, trying to figure out how the thing worked. After a few minutes, he had it figured out.

"Okay, now the signal this things giving off drains the life-force from these mushrooms. I should be able to reconfigure the circuitry to send the life-force back into the forest," said Tails. He walked around to the back end of the machine and took a panel off the back. He then stuck his head inside the machine, looking at all the various wires and circuits. "Yeah, I should be able to do this." With that, he reached inside the machine and started fiddling with it. After a few minutes, he pulled his head out and placed the panel back on. "That should do it."

"So now what?" asked Sonic.

"Well, in a few minutes, the forest should have all its life-force back. We just need to sit back and watch," said Tails. True to his word, the forest started changing colors again, only this time they changed from the pasty white to the dull brown, then back to the vibrant red.

"Good job, Tails," said Sonic, messing up Tails hair with his hand. Tails giggled, then pushed his hand away.

"Hey, it was no problem," said Tails. Sonic then looked back at the machine.

"Now that we've fixed the forest, I'm shutting this thing down permanently," said Sonic. He curled up into a spindash and charged the machine, slamming into the radio dish. The antenna crumpled inward from the blow. Sonic then spindashed into the machine's front repeatedly, smashing the controls to pieces. He then ran back several meters, then rushed the thing. He spindashed the machine at over 300 mph, blowing right through the machine, leaving a gaping hole through the middle of it.

"You never do anything halfway, do you?" said Tails.

"Nope. And when we reach the Death Egg, I'll do the same thing to it," said Sonic. But he noticed that Tails wasn't listening to him. He had his ears perked up, meaning he was listening to something in the distance. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it's big," said Tails. Sonic tried to hear whatever it was that had caught Tails' attention, but his hearing wasn't anywhere as good as the young fox's was. But after about a minute of listening, he also heard the noise. It was sort of a low hum like that of Metal Sonic's engine, but a lot louder. Then they saw it.

"That's all we need right now," said Sonic as he watched the Flying Battery, the flagship of Robotnik's fleet, cruise overhead. But Sonic then saw something that changed his mind about seeing the giant battleship. Two little specks against the silver hull were visible, and Sonic had a good guess on what those two specks were. "Looks like Robotnik and Mecha are hitching a ride." Tails finally spotted them just a few seconds before they entered the main hanger.

"What are they doing here? I would have thought they would have stayed on the Death Egg until it was repaired," said Tails.

"My guess, they need to get spare parts for the engines," said Sonic. "How about we pay them a little visit?"

"Good idea, but just how are we supposed to get up there? I can't fly us both that high," said Tails. Sonic looked about for a way to get up there, but there wasn't anything that looked like it could help then reach the ship. Frustrated, Sonic slammed a fist onto the trunk of one of the mushrooms, and was surprised when his fist bounced off like the thing was made of rubber. A smile worked its way onto Sonic's face as an idea came to mind.

"I know how. We'll take the mushroom express," said Sonic as he jumped up to the top of the mushroom. When he landed on the mushroom's cup, he bounced off like a ball. Tails smiled when he saw this. He then flew up to join Sonic on a nearby mushroom. The two of them bounced off the mushrooms numerous times, each time going almost twice as high. After about ten bounces each, they were high enough that they could make out the fine details on the Flying Battery. The only problem was that they couldn't bounce any higher. But Tails was on top of the situation.

"Hey Sonic," he yelled at the bouncing hedgehog. "We're close enough now that I can get us up there." Tails went back down and bounced up, but this time, he twirled his twin tails and stayed up in the air, waiting for Sonic to bounce back up. Sonic dropped onto the mushroom again, and bounced up at the waiting Tails. They then locked wrists as Tails lifted Sonic up towards the giant battleship.

"Almost there," said Tails as he neared a platform sticking out of the side of the battleship. Then they touched down, Tails panting as he slumped to the floor of the deck.

"Good job, Tails," said Sonic. Tails gave him a thumbs up. "Now what do you say to a little breaking and entering?" He pointed to a door that was level with the platform they had landed on.

"You bet," said Tails. Sonic smiled and spindashed into the door, knocking it open. The two Mobians walked into the cargo hold of the Flying Battery, Sonic shutting the door behind them.

END OF CHAPTER 7


	8. Flying Battery

****

Chapter 8

Flying Battery

"You know," said Sonic as he and Tails walked past several rows of boxes containing parts for Swatbots and various other machines. "This place doesn't look that big from the inside."

"That's just because we're inside one of the ship's cargo bays," said Tails, pointing to the red 23A painted on the walls. "If we can get to a computer, I can find out how long it will take Robotnik to repair the Death Egg."

"Hopefully it's been damaged enough that it won't take off for quite a while," said Sonic. Tails shook his head at the statement.

"I doubt it. The damage to the engines were minimal. More than likely, we've only got about a day to reach it before it launches again," said Tails. By now, they had reached the cargo hatch leading to the corridor on the inside. As they went through the door, they didn't see the security camera watching them enter the corridor outside the cargo bay.

"It seems we have a little bit of a rodent problem," said Metal Sonic as he watched the screen from the camera. Robotnik looked up from his chair.

"You have got to be kidding me," said Robotnik.

"I wish I was. Shall I sound the alarm?" asked Metal Sonic. Robotnik stroked his mustache, deep in thought. Slowly, a smile appeared on his face.

"No. I have a better idea," said Robotnik. Metal Sonic looked up from the screen. "I want you to find them, then lead them into the experimental weapons room. I have a new toy to try out, and they will make the perfect test animals," said Robotnik. Mecha nodded, then walked out of the control room.

Sonic and Tails had been following the corridor for over ten minutes now, looking into each room they came to. Unfortunately, every room with a computer in it had several Swatbots standing guard. But not all of the rooms could possibly be guarded, and after fifty rooms, they finally found one with no Swatbots around. Sonic peered into the room, then walked in, motioning Tails to follow. Tails went straight to the computer, and started typing in commands.

"I was right. The Death Egg sustained only slight damage to the engines. Just enough that it can't take off again until repaired, but we only have approximately twenty hours until it launches again," said Tails. Sonic shook his head. This was becoming more dangerous as time went on. If the Death Egg managed to launch again before they reached it, there would be no way to stop it. They had to get a message to Knothole and warn them about what was going on.

"Tails, is there any way we can get a message to Knothole?" asked Sonic.

"I suppose, but I'll have to contact Silver's comm unit so Robotnik can't track it," said Tails. Sonic gave him a nod, and Tails started typing more commands into the computer.

**********

"So why are you leaving again?" asked Sally.

"I can't really say…" said Shadow as he looked at the floor. "All I can tell you is that it's something personal. I wish I could tell you, but it's something I'd prefer to keep to myself." Sally sighed as she looked up at the ceiling. She then looked back at Shadow.

"Okay, I guess I shouldn't pry into your business. How long do you think you'll be gone?" asked Sally. Shadow gave a shrug.

"I'm not sure. Two days, maybe three," said Shadow.

"Well, be back as soon as you can," said Sally.

"I'll be back as soon as possible," said Shadow. With that, he walked out of her hut. Taking a running start, he activated his shoes' thrusters and started skating out of Knothole, going well over 200 mph. Sally sighed as Shadow went out of view. The black hedgehog had never been very open about himself, and there was much that they didn't know about him. But they had no idea that Shadow's past was something far more extraordinary than anyone could imagine. Sally sat down in the nearest chair, wondering what else the day would bring. Her answer came less than a minute later when Silver came running into her hut.

"Sally! Sonic and Tails just sent me a voice message from inside one of Robotnik's airships! We have a major problem!" cried Silver. Sally jumped up out of her chair.

"What!? Put it on," she said. Silver activated his comm recorder and brought up the message sent by Tails from the Flying Battery.

"Silver, please give this message to Sally as soon as you get it," said Sonic's voice. "We are sending this message from inside the Flying Battery airship from Robotnik's fleet. How we got here is a long story, so here's the short version. We found an island that floats above the surface of the planet. When we landed, we were attacked by an echidna called Knuckles. He stole six of the Chaos Emeralds, but we retrieved them."

"Robotnik and Metal Sonic are here, and I believe they have tricked Knuckles into thinking we are the bad guys. But that's not the worst news of the day. We just had a run in with Robotnik's newest weapon, called the Death Egg. Tails will take over the message here, as he knows more about this thing that I do," said Sonic's voice as he cut out. Then Tails' voice came up.

"The Death Egg is an immense battle station with enough power to destroy Mobius. We managed to by some time by causing an explosion in the engine housing, but the damage is only temporary. Within the next twenty hours, it will launch again. We'll try to stop it from launching again, but…" suddenly, Tails' voice cut out. Sally looked up at Silver.

"What happened?" she asked, worry deep set in her voice. Silver shook his head as he turned off his comm unit.

"I'm not sure. It could simply that there was some atmospheric disturbance that blocked the signal," said Silver.

"And what if it wasn't?" asked Sally.

"They were discovered and they ditched the comm station," said Silver.

"Well, at least we know what's going on. Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Sally.

"Well, they also sent the location of this Floating Island in the file. I can get to the island in about an hour before it launches, so I'm heading out there. I don't think I can do too much about the Death Egg. My robotic body is too easy to track. But maybe I can find this echidna and talk some sense into him," said Silver.

"Okay. Good luck, and be careful," said Sally. Silver gave a nod as he ran out of her hut.

**********

"Within the next twenty hours, it will launch again," said Tails into the microphone. As they finished up their message, they didn't notice the shadow walking quickly but silently across the room towards them. "We'll try to stop it from launching again, but…" Tails never finished as the titanium claws of Metal Sonic slammed into the computer, totally disabling it.

"Don't you know it's not nice to use other people's things without asking?" said Metal Sonic as he grasped Tails by the neck in his other hand, lifting him off the ground.

"Hey! Put him down!" yelled Sonic as he gave Mecha a swift kick in the side, knocking him back a few feet and causing him to lose his grip on Tails. Tails coughed a couple of times as he tried to get his breath back.

"You okay?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," said Tails. By now, Metal Sonic had recovered from Sonic's kick and was advancing towards them, his red pupils glowing brightly.

"You might be fine now, but after I'm through with you, you'll wish you had never boarded this ship," said Metal Sonic.

"Well, we'll know for sure only when you catch us," said Sonic as he grabbed Tails by the hand and dashed out of the room. Metal Sonic let out a small snicker before following them out of the room.

**********

I had just been over most of the area of Mushroom Forest, and I still hadn't seen hide nor hair of Sonic or Tails. I had thought about asking Robotnik for some help in finding them, but he had said he would be off the radio till the Death Egg was repaired, so I dismissed that idea. I had also thought about contacting Metal Sonic to see if he would help, but I didn't hold that idea for more than a few seconds.

"It would really help if I had some clue on where to look for those two," I said to myself. I sighed, then started climbing one of the giant trees that made up the forest. When I got to the top, I looked around, trying to tell just where exactly I was. About half a mile away to the northwest was the beginning to the desert that covered a good portion of the island. I shook my head. There was no way they would ever venture out there, unless they had absolutely no choice. Then again, they might have gone out there just to avoid running into me. I sighed again. I couldn't believe I was going to do this. I leapt from the tree, my dreadlocks catching the wind as I glided across the remainder of the forest and over the edge of the desert. I knew that I was making a big mistake, but then again, something in my gut told me that they either were or were eventually going to be somewhere out in the desert

**********

Sonic and Tails raced around another corridor, just missing the laser blast of a pair of Swatbots just coming out of a room behind them. Metal Sonic blasted by the Swatbots in hot pursuit, not even caring that he had knocked the Swatbots down in the process. Sonic chanced a glance behind them to see Metal Sonic keeping pace with them, but not closing. He returned his attention forward as a pair of Swatbots stepped out in front of them. Sonic curled up into a spindash and crashed into them, knocking them to the ground.

"So now what do we do?" asked Tails as they turned another corner.

"We have to find a way to lose him," said Sonic. Just then, he saw a room with a door different from the others. This one was made of energy bars instead of steel like the others. And right now, the energy bars were turned off and the switch that activated them was on the inside of the room. "And I know just how to do it." Sonic reached over and grabbed Tails' hand, then dashed into the room, slapping the door control. Metal Sonic skidded to a stop as the energy bars became active. Cursing under his breath, Metal Sonic blasted down the hall and out of sight.

"Well, that's a temporary solution, but he'll find a way in here soon," said Tails.

"He doesn't need to find another way into this room," said the voice of Robotnik. Sonic's hands curled into fists.

"And why's that Robotnik?" asked Sonic. Robotnik's laughter filled the room as a force field suddenly enveloped the two Mobians, trapping them inside a space of thirty feet by thirty feet.

"Because you fell for my trap, that's why," said Robotnik's voice as the lights in the room came to life, filling the room with their brilliance. Robotnik was standing on the other side of the room, just outside of the force field. "Welcome to your final resting place, hedgehog."

"So what are you going to do with us?" asked Tails. Robotnik laughed again as he walked over to a small control console just outside of the force field. Tails' ears suddenly perked as they heard a very faint humming sound coming from below them. Making sure Robotnik wasn't watching him, he knelt down and put his ear to the floor.

"What are you doing?" whispered Sonic. Tails stood up and looked over at Sonic.

"I can hear a faint humming sound just beneath us. I'll bet the engine room's just below this level," answered Tails. Just then, there came a loud whining sound above them as a panel opened in the ceiling, a good sized laser lens dropping down out of the panel. Sonic smiled as an idea came to mind. Now if only he could trick Robotnik into doing what he needed him to do.

"A laser? I would have expected something more," said Sonic. Just as he had hoped, Robotnik was giving him an angry glare as he typed a command into the console.

"This laser's lens is made from Mobizoid quartz crystals, and is able to produce a beam of light able to burn you to a crisp even when set on 10% of its full power. The lens started moving towards Sonic, who watched it move over his head. He then saw the lens begin to glow as it began to collect the power necessary to fire the laser. Then it fired, shooting an intensely hot beam of light down at Sonic. But Sonic was ready for it and was easily able to dodge the blast.

"Was that it? I could easily dodge that thing at double that power," teased Sonic. Robotnik grumbled under his breath as he typed two commands into the console, raising the power outage to 20% and at the same time shrinking the size of the force field five feet on all sides. The lens then tried to track Sonic again, but even with it on 20%, Sonic was still able to dodge it, but this time the beam left a small indentation in the floor. Tails didn't know what Sonic was trying to accomplish until he saw Sonic give him a wink. Tails' mouth curled into a smile when he realized what Sonic was doing.

"Come on, you have got to be kidding me," said Sonic. "I bet I can still dodge that thing at half its full power." Robotnik snarled as he typed two more commands into the console, shrinking the force field another five feet and raising the power to 50%.

"Let's see you dodge this blast, hedgehog," said Robotnik. The lens centered over Sonic once again, collecting power into the crystal. The blast it fired covered a quarter of the area inside the force field. Luckily, Tails was standing just on the edge of the field, so he wasn't in the way. Sonic, in the meantime, was standing right under the lens when it fired, and despite his super speed, the entire back half of his top quill was caught in the blast. Sonic felt like he could scream from the pain, but he restrained himself, trying not to give Robotnik the idea that he was in intense pain. Sonic looked back to see that the floor had a crater that went nearly three quarters of the way through the floor. He groaned silently at the thought of what he had to do.

"Is that all you have? That's pathetic!" cried Sonic. Robotnik yelled in frustration as he shrank the force field down to ten feet by ten feet and raised the lens' power level to its highest setting.

"Let's see you run your way out of THIS!" cried Robotnik as lens fired again, this time the blast almost totally filling up the area left in the force field. But Sonic wasn't as cocky this time around, and was totally absorbed in watching the lens prepare to fire. He stood at the edge of the force field opposite of Tails. When the lens fired, Sonic used his super speed to leap out of the way, just barely missing the beam, but unfortunately knocking himself into the force field. He cried out as electrical shocks shot throughout his body. But luckily for Sonic, the blast from the lens penetrated the steel floor and punctured the engine housing, causing a small explosion in the heart of the engine. Power throughout the ship rapidly faded as the last of the engine's power failed. The force field vanished, Robotnik running out of the room to leave Tails and a fairly stunned Sonic behind.

**********

I had only been walking about the desert for about fifteen minutes when a sound had caught my attention. Looking up, I saw the lead airship in Robotnik's fleet making its way across the desert towards the Death Egg about eight miles away. I watched it for a little bit as it passed by overhead. As it continued on its way, I returned my attention to the desert area, only to have half my life scared out of me as a huge explosion sounded from the battleship. My eyes shot back up at the mighty airship, which was now spouting fire from the back underside. I took out my radio and to tune it in on the frequency of the Flying Battery's radio equipment.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I cried into the radio. Nothing but static answered me. I quickly tuned into Metal Sonic's comm system. "Mecha! Come in! What the heck happened?!" He never answered, but I caught transmissions between Metal Sonic and Robotnik, some of which I heard Sonic's name being used. I frowned as I looked up at the dying airship, which was only about thirty seconds away from slamming into the desert floor. Sonic was the one responsible for this. A small flame of anger began to burn inside of me, one that I had never experienced before. I was really starting to hate Sonic for what he was doing, and I was determined to find him and make him pay for this incident, after I made sure that Robotnik and Metal Sonic were okay…well, at least Robotnik. The last time I had talked with Metal Sonic, I had made up my mind that the robot was more trouble than he was worth. I watched as the Flying Battery finally slammed into the desert floor, kicking up a huge dust cloud.

"Hey Doc!" I cried as I ran towards the downed airship. As I walked through the dust cloud engulfing the airship, I saw two lone figures standing near the wreckage. I immediately recognized Metal Sonic, his blue hull easily noticeable. The other was Robotnik, who was standing next to his hovercraft. "Hey! Are you two all right?" I cried to them. They both turned around.

"No, we're not fine!" shouted Metal Sonic. "That hedgehog destroyed the Flying Battery and has escaped us once again!" Robotnik motioned for him to stand down, which he did hesitantly, but his eyes still glowed bright with anger. Robotnik then turned to me.

"I am going back to the Death Egg now. You know this island better than anyone, so I'm giving you the job of finding Sonic and Tails and dealing with them once and for all," he said.

"It would be my pleasure to take care of them. I will make sure they pay for this outrage," I said, giving him my best salute. Robotnik just nodded as he climbed into his hovercraft and took off towards the Death Egg, Metal Sonic flying along right beside him. I turned my attention to the desert in front of me. If they had abandoned the Flying Battery, then they were out there somewhere. And I was going to find them.

**********

"Mecha, I want you to follow him. Make sure he finishes the job. Keep me updated until he finishes off the hedgehog," said Robotnik.

"Very well. And if the echidna proves to be disloyal?" asked Metal Sonic.

"Then you may do with him as you wish," said Robotnik.

"I was hoping you would say that," said Metal Sonic, laughing evilly to himself as he headed towards the desert below to track Knuckles.

**********

"Come on, wake up Sonic!" cried Tails. Sonic slowly sat up. His whole body felt like it was on fire.

"Oh man…what happened?" asked a groggy Sonic. Tails helped him to his feet.

"The laser shot through the floor and hit the engine dead on. You were knocked into the force field, but when the power died, it shut off. You were lucky," said Tails. Sonic steadied himself, regaining his sense of balance. He still hurt like heck all over, but at least it wasn't anything permanent. As they left the room, a loud explosion rang out from behind them. They turned around to see a blast of fire shoot through the hole in the floor.

"I think it's time we ditched this place," said Sonic as he grabbed Tails hand and raced down the corridor. He passed several rooms without windows before reaching a cargo bay. Dashing into it with Tails in tow, he ran straight to the supply hatch. "I'm going to spindash the door down, then you fly us out of here," said Sonic.

"You got it," said Tails. Sonic charged the door, curling up into a spindash and smashing into the door. It buckled under the attack. Sonic spindashed it again, this time knocking the door completely off the ship and causing himself to fall out of the ship. Tails immediately flew after him. Tails grabbed Sonic as the bottom back of Flying Battery exploded, spraying molten metal everywhere.

"Sonic, the ground's too far down! I'll get tired before we can get to a safe height to drop!" cried Tails. Sonic suddenly saw something he didn't expect up this high above the ground.

"Tails! A ring!" cried Sonic, pointing over at another spinning, glowing ring floating high above the ground. Using the last of his stamina, Tails flew over and into the ring, both of them vanishing in a flash of white light. When it died down, they were once again in the chamber of the Master Emerald, the seven Super Emeralds resting on their pillars, one of them glowing a bright green.

"Well, looks like we need to light another one of these emeralds," said Tails.

"How about we each touch an different emerald so we can get two of them this time?" suggested Sonic.

"Sounds good to me," said Tails. Both of them walked up to separate emeralds and placed their hands on their tops, both of them being enveloped in white light. All was silent in the chamber for a few minutes before they both reappeared in a second flash of light.

"Score," said Sonic, holding up the blue Chaos Emerald.

"Same here," said Tails, holding up the violet Chaos Emerald. Both emeralds flew out of their hands and into the air. They hovered above their respectable Super Emerald counterparts for a few seconds before they each shot a light in their respectable colors into them. Both supers flickered slightly for a few seconds before they burst forth a bright glow colored the same as their Chaos counterparts.

"Well, that's three down, four to go," said Tails. Sonic nodded as he placed the two Chaos Emeralds his pack. They were once again swallowed up by a blast of white light as they transported to the middle of the desert.

"Well, this is great," said Sonic sarcastically. "Well, we'd better get a move on. The Death Egg's not going to stay grounded for too long." With that, Sonic and Tails started walking towards the north, heading in the direction of the island's mountain range and the Death Egg.

END OF CHAPTER 8


	9. Sandopolis

****

Chapter 9

Sandopolis

"Man, just how big is this desert?" asked Tails as he walked along side Sonic. The two of them had been walking for about half an hour, but still didn't seem any closer to reaching the far side of the desert.

"I don't know, but I say we've been going too slow for too long. You up for a little jog?" asked Sonic.

"Do you honestly think you could stop me?" asked Tails as he took off, his tails twirling behind him, adding to his speed. Sonic smiled as he took off after the young fox, quickly catching up to him. The two of them cruised along the sandy desert floor at over 90 mph, kicking up a huge dust cloud behind them as they ran.

********** 

I was really getting annoyed with just about everything as I walked about the desert of my island. I was annoyed with Sonic and Tails for destroying Flying Battery and coming back to the island. I was annoyed with Metal Sonic because of the way he kept getting on my case no matter whose fault it was for what happened around him. And I was annoyed at my own home for how huge the desert was. I sighed and looked up into the sky. How could my simple lifestyle be turned upside down in just two days? But something was weird about the sky. I frowned as I looked at it. It wasn't clear like it was supposed to be. It was slightly darker than it was supposed to be.

"Now what in the world is causing that?" I said to myself as I watched it get slightly darker, then begin to clear up. I returned my attention to the desert, only to see a giant cloud of dust moving slowly off in the distance. *Now what could be causing that?* I wondered. There was no wind blowing, so it couldn't be one of the dust storms that frequented the desert. Then it hit me. I knew exactly what was causing it. I took off after the cloud, kicking up my own as I followed it.

********** 

Sonic and Tails had been running for only a few minutes when they suddenly stopped and found themselves in the midst of the ruins of some ancient city.

"Boy, this place sure looks old," said Tails. They walked along what appeared to once have been a street, looking at the various stone buildings. Some looked as though they might at the slightest touch, while others looked as sturdy as any building constructed today.

"Yeah," said Sonic as his eyes wandered about the ruins. "Kind of reminds me of some of those ruins we saw when we met Vector and Charmy." Tails was about to say something when he tripped over the tip of a stone in the ground and went crashing into the side of a stone building. Pieces came loose as Tails started to get up. But Sonic motioned for him not to move. Tails' eyes looked up to see probably a couple dozen scorpions staring out of the freshly removed stone. Each one had it's stinger ready to strike at the slightest movement.

"Now what?" whispered Tails.

"I guess I could speed in there and grab you and run out before they can strike. I know I'm faster than they are," said Sonic. Tails nodded ever so slightly, causing the scorpions to flick their stingers in anger. Tails closed his eyes as he saw one of them flick its stinger towards him, ready to pump its poison into him. But the sting never came. Tails slowly opened his eyes to see he was in one of the stone buildings.

"Told you I was faster than they were," said Sonic. Tails looked up at Sonic, who was smiling. Tails was about to say something when something shining in the back of the building caught his eye.

"Hey Sonic! Another ring!" said Tails. Sonic looked back to see the glowing ring floating in the back of the room, casting its warm glow throughout the room. Sonic and Tails ran over to it and jumped in. As they disappeared along with the ring, Sonic could have sworn he heard someone shout no.

********** 

I had followed them into the ruins, watching them from various places where I knew I could watch them and they would never see me. I watched as they looked about the stone buildings, sometimes taking a peak inside one of them. I leapt from roof to roof, not making a sound as I spied on them. Then I saw Tails trip and fall, knocking off some of the siding of one of the buildings. I also saw the huge nest of King scorpions he had uncovered. I watched them move slowly down the side of the building towards Tails, then saw Sonic zip in and pull Tails out of their just a split second before one of them struck. I suddenly realized how tense I had become watching that. But why was I tense. I shouldn't be. After all, they just caused damage to one of my island's oldest patch of ruins. I jumped down off the roof and silently moved over next to the entrance to the building that Sonic had sped into. I listened to them as they talked.

"Told you I was faster than they were," said Sonic's voice. Then I heard Tails.

"Hey Sonic! Another ring!" said Tails voice. Ring? Why would he sound so excited about a ring. I suddenly looked up as realization hit me. He meant one of my ring teleporters! I ran into the building, and saw Sonic and Tails get up right next to the ring and bend down as they prepared to jump into it.

"No!" I yelled as they jumped into the ring, it disappearing along with them. I quickly pulled out my miniature, rubbed my hand over it and threw it to the ground. Normally, a ring would appear, but it didn't. I tried again, but still nothing happened. Just as I had feared. The channel was occupied. It would take them to Hidden Palace and back before it would become open again. I picked up the miniature and put it back in my shoe. I could feel rage building in me. They had gone to the one place on the whole island that was off limits to everyone but myself! The small flame of my rivalry with Sonic started growing, turning into a raging inferno in a matter of seconds. I smiled evilly to myself. I would make them suffer for going to Hidden Palace. And I was going to make it painful as well. I stood up against the wall in the shadows, waiting for the ring to bring them back.

********** 

*What is that echidna up to?* thought Metal Sonic as he tracked the elusive echidna through the ruins. He had lost him twice now, only to pick him up seconds later way out in front of him. He had picked up Sonic and Tails on his radar once they had arrived in the ruins, but he refrained himself from attacking them. To reveal himself to them would be to reveal himself to Knuckles. So he stayed a good distance away from the three of them, tracking them with his radar instead of his own eyes. Suddenly, he lost Sonic and Tails on his radar.

*Now what?* he thought. He tried resetting his systems, but Sonic and Tails were still missing. A few minutes later, they reappeared again. Mecha moved silently towards the building they were in. Just a few seconds before he reached the building, his radar recorded a sudden drop in all three of their altitudes. Then Sonic and Tails signals went to the left sharply, while Knuckles signal went to the right sharply. More confused than ever, he looked into the building. But no one was in there. But that didn't make sense. He was still getting their signals from somewhere. It was then he noticed that their was a hole in the floor on the right side of the room. He hovered off the ground and went over to the hole and looked down it. He couldn't see any light, but using his infrared vision, he spotted Knuckles form rapidly falling diagonally to the right. He couldn't see Sonic and Tails anymore. Probably something blocking their heat from showing through. Metal Sonic sighed to himself, then hovered down into the hole after Knuckles.

********** 

A flash of white light filled the room as Sonic and Tails reappeared. They had just charged both the red and yellow supers and recovered the two Chaos Emeralds of the same color.

"Well, two left to go," said Sonic as they started to walk towards the entrance to the building. But they had only taken a few steps when something jumped out of the shadows at them, letting out a yell of rage.

"What in the…" was all Sonic got out just before a fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him back a few feet and to the ground. Tails ran over to his side.

"Sonic! Are you okay?" he asked. Sonic slowly sat up, rubbing his aching jaw. He looked up to see an enraged Knuckles standing on the other side of the room.

"Hey Knux! What was that for?" yelled Sonic. Knuckles clenched his fists.

"How dare you act like you don't know," he said as he started walking towards them. "You know perfectly well you have trespassed on sacred ground! Hidden Palace is off limits to all but me!" Knuckles picked Sonic up by the fur on his chest. "And for that, you are going to pay dearly," he said in his lowest voice. Tails just stood there in place, frozen with fear.

"I'd like to see you try," said Sonic. This made Knuckles even more angry, if that was even possible at this point in time. He pulled back his fist, and thrust it forward. But Sonic ducked his head under the punch, causing it to hit the wall behind them. But for some reason, the part of the wall Knuckles punch hit went inwards. Suddenly, the part of the floor they were on crumbled out from underneath them. They then fell into the hole, falling for just a few seconds before they hit a slope of some kind They began to slide down the slippery slope. Suddenly, Knuckles course shifted as he was swept down a different slope. Further down the slope they slid, almost falling off as they hit a sharp turn in the slope.

"Kind of like a big slide, huh?" yelled Sonic. Tails was still too frightened to answer as they continued to plunge deeper into the darkness. After about a minute, they suddenly hit the bottom, rolling across the sandy stone floor as they came to a stop.

"Man, what a ride," said Sonic as he stood up and brushed himself off.

"I'll say," said the frightened voice of Tails.

"What's the matter little bro? Scared of the dark?" asked Sonic.

"No way! Why would you think that?" cried Tails. Just then, something tapped him on the shoulder. "Cut it out, Sonic." Sonic looked over towards Tails' voice. What was he talking about?

"Uh, Tails. I'm over here," said Sonic. Tails froze in place.

"Well, if that's not you, then what is it?" asked Tails weakly. Sonic reached into his pack and pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald, its light driving away part of the darkness surrounding them. Sonic lifted the emerald towards where Tails voice was coming from. And what he saw surprised him more than anything. Tails saw Sonic's jaw drop, and he couldn't help but turn around. And what he saw sent chills of fear shooting though his body. Floating in front of him just a few inches from his face was what looked like a white sheet with horns. Its black eyes stared emotionlessly at Tails. It then let out a high-pitched giggle, scaring Tails silly as he ran back behind Sonic.

"It's a g…g…ghost!" cried Tails. The ghost let out another high-pitched giggle as two more ghosts appeared next to it.

"Ghosts eh? Well, I'm not afraid of ghosts," said Sonic. As soon as he said that, the ghosts grew to three times their size, making them the same size as Sonic. They then charged Sonic, their high-pitched giggling having turned into a terrifying growl as they flew towards Sonic. Sonic leapt forward at them, going into a spindash. But just before he connected with them, they disappeared. Sonic uncurled, looking around for them. The ghosts then reappeared above and behind Sonic. They once again let out a loud growl as they dove at him. Sonic tried to spindash them again, but with the same results. Another three times the same thing happened. Tails watched the ghosts as they repeatedly dodged Sonic's attacks. Suddenly, the whole place lit up. Tails and Sonic were blinded by the sudden brightness. They both closed their eyes tightly, hearing an ear piercing screech come from the ghosts. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they noticed the ghosts were gone.

"Well, that was sure different," said Sonic as he walked over to Tails.

"What were those things?" asked Tails.

"Those were spirits of past Guardians, still trying to protect this island from outsiders," said a voice from behind them.

********** 

I tried to grab Sonic as we slid down the slope, but just before I could, I was swept down in a different direction. I cursed under my breath. I had lost them again! This was getting redundant. I slid down for about a half a minute before I hit the end of the slope I was on. I rolled across the stone floor, slamming into the side of a wall. A pain shot through my side from the impact, but I fought the pain. I had been in pain many times in the past, and I was used to dealing with it. I stood up, brushing the sand out of my fur. I was so busy fuming over loosing Sonic and Tails that I didn't even notice Metal Sonic hover down from above and take refuge behind a nearby statue.

"Well, that's just great!" I said to myself. I took a step forward, and was rewarded by having my head strike something hanging from the ceiling. I reached up and pulled on whatever it was above me. Suddenly, the whole room filled with light as torches all along the walls lit up. I knew instantly where I was. We had fallen into the underground pyramid that my father had told me was under Sandopolis. I suddenly heard a high pitched screech from down below. I looked down to see Sonic and Tails standing about fifty feet below me. I smiled to myself. I hadn't lost them after all. They were right in front of me. I jumped off the ledge I was on, gliding down towards them. I heard their conversation as I grew closer.

"Well, that was sure different," said Sonic's voice.

"What were those things?" I heard Tails ask. I landed silently behind them. I thought very briefly about attacking them from behind, but I didn't like that idea. While I was now 100% against them, I still had a sense of honor that I never lost. And I knew what they had seen. I had seen them a few times around the ruins of Sandopolis when I was walking on the surface with my father.

"Those were the spirits of past Guardians, still trying to protect this island from outsiders," I said. I watched them turn around. Tails looked very shaken, and Sonic looked a little worn out.

"What do you want, Knuckles? Haven't you done enough?" said Sonic.

"Actually, I've only just begun, hedgehog," I said as I advanced towards him. But Sonic stood his ground, looking as though he was set in stone, not a single muscle moving on his whole body. He then crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Knuckles, I do wish you would open your eyes to the obvious," he said. I stopped in my tracks. Was he making fun of me, or was this some sort of trick?

"What do you mean?" I said. He looked up at me.

"Can't you tell?" he asked. "Robotnik's playing you for a fool. He's using you." I clenched my fists.

"That's not true!" I yelled at him. "I choose to join his side by my own free will!" Sonic just shook his head again, making me even angrier.

"True, but I'll bet you all seven of the Chaos Emeralds that none of the rubbish he said to you was nothing but lies," said Sonic. I was really angry at this point.

"It doesn't matter at this point. You trespassed in Hidden Palace. That is something that I cannot forgive," I said.

"Knux. If you knew what we was doing in there, you'd thank us a thousand times over," said Sonic. I frowned at this statement. What had they been doing in there? I closed off that thought. It didn't matter what they had been doing, they had still gone there without my permission.

"It doesn't matter now," I said, once again advancing on them. "You still trespassed without my permission, and that is something I cannot forgive!" With that, I lunged at Sonic, knocking him to the stone floor. I pulled back to punch him, but he pushed me off him with his feet, knocking me back into a wall. I jumped to my feet, anger now fueling my body. I rushed Sonic, a punch aimed right at his head, intent on knocking him out. But I never reached him. I suddenly got entangled in something. I realized that it was Tails who had tripped me. He had swung his body around and had hit my legs with his tails, getting them entangled in them.

We both flew forward, knocking into Sonic. All three of us slammed into a wall, which must have been a secret passage from long ago as the wall turned against our combined weight. The only problem was that there was no floor on the other side. Nothing but a long drop. I dug my knuckles into the rocky wall, stopping myself from falling. I looked down to see Sonic and Tails continue falling into the blackness below. I sighed. That had been a close one. Suddenly, a terrible odor hit my nose. I sniffed the air, then realized what it was. It was the smell of sulfur dioxide, and there was only one place on the island where that smell came from. And that was Lava Reef.

END OF CHAPTER 9


	10. Lava Reef

****

Chapter 10

Lava Reef

I watched the two of them fall further into the darkness, then disappear. I quickly climbed out of the shaft and back into the pyramid. I then looked back down the shaft. Nothing but the smell of molten rock came from the darkness. I didn't even hear Sonic or Tails yelling. I started to smile. More than likely they had fallen into a pit of lava down that shaft. I pulled myself away from the ledge. I guess I must have been more exhausted from all the excitement than I thought I was, because the last thing I could remember was leaning against one of the walls and they waking up almost eleven hours later.

I suddenly woke with a start when I realized what I had done. I suddenly got worried as a thought passed through my mind. This particular area of Lava Reef was very close to where Hidden Palace was located. If they had not fallen into a lava pit like I had thought the previous night, then they could have found Hidden Palace without the help of a teleporter by now. I quickly pulled out the miniature Master Emerald, rubbed my hand over it, and threw it to the ground. The ring teleporter appeared in front of me. I scooped up the miniature and jumped into the ring.

**********

Metal Sonic stood silently in the shadows, watching Knuckles perform this act. He had become very bored just watching the echidna sleep for the past eleven hours. How he wanted to go after Sonic, but Robotnik had given him clear instructions to follow and watch Knuckles. He clenched his claws into fists. He would have a word with him about that when he got back to Death Egg. Suddenly, the ring reappeared. Knowing that this was going to be the only way to keep track of Knuckles, Metal Sonic jumped into the ring, disappearing in a flash of light.

**********

"Oh man. What happened?" asked Tails as he sat up. Sonic was standing at the entrance to a cave they had landed in. He looked back at the sound of Tails voice.

"Oh good, you're up," said Sonic. Tails yawned and stretched. He then noticed the time on his watch.

"Sonic! How could you let me sleep for ten hours!" he cried, glaring at Sonic.

"Relax little bro. You didn't miss anything. I've only been up for about ten minutes myself," said Sonic. "But I wonder what knocked us out? I remember hitting bottom, but I didn't hit my head or anything." Tails shrugged, then caught a whiff of the air.

"Geeze!" he said, pinching his nose. "What's that terrible smell?" He looked over at Sonic with a glare. Sonic noticed and held up his hands in defense.

"Hey! Don't look at me! It smelled like that when I woke up," said Sonic. Tails gave him that 'yeah right' look, but took another whiff, and realized that it wasn't that kind of smell. He took another good smell and knew then for certain what was causing the smell.

"Your right Sonic. That's not the smell. It's the smell of sulfuric gas," said Tails.

"What's sulfuric gas?" asked Sonic.

"It's a kind of gas that is given off by lava," said Tails.

"I'll bet it was that gas that made us fall asleep. But why did we wake back up? If the gas knocked us out, wouldn't it keep us out?" asked Sonic.

"I doubt it. I think that the gas knocked us out because we were both exhausted from all the activity since last night. After we got our strength back, we were able to work the gas out of our system," said Tails.

"That's probably it. You aren't used to this much running around, and I haven't slept since we got here," said Sonic. He stretched, then picked up his pack, and put it on. "Well, we'd better get going. Only two hours left until the Death Egg launches again." Tails stood up and grabbed his pack. They then started to walk out of the small cave, only to find themselves inside what looked like a huge volcano. Rivers of lava flowed throughout the whole cavern they were in, with only a few rocks sticking out of the rivers, sort of like stepping stones. On the far end was a tunnel that looked to be carved out of the stone.

"Man! Where are we?" asked Tails. Sonic shook his head.

"I don't know Tails. But if this is a volcano, then we've reached the mountains, which means that the Death Egg isn't too far away," said Sonic. He then leaped over to the nearest rock. He turned around and motioned for Tails to follow him. Tails whirled his twin tails and flew over to Sonic, landing beside him.

"Where do you think Knuckles went?" asked Tails, trying to get his mind off the intense heat the lava was giving off. Sonic leaped over to another rock, and Tails followed.

"I don't know. But he must not be looking for us right now, because if he was, I'm sure we would've woken up a lot sooner than we did," said Sonic. He then leaped over to the last rock right in front of a tunnel entrance. Tails flew over and landed next to him.

"So what's the plan, Sonic?" asked Tails. Sonic sighed, then shrugged.

"I don't really have one. Knux totally messed up my main plan after we fell into that pyramid," said Sonic. He leaped over into the tunnel and Tails followed close behind him. They then started walking through the tunnel, which was slanted down at a twenty degree angle. "The basic plan now is to follow these tunnels until we get out of this volcano." They had been walking for only about ten minutes when huge a tremor shook the whole tunnel, knocking Sonic and Tails to the stone floor. Rocks came loose all around them as the tremor increased.

"Sonic! Behind us!" cried Tails, pointing back towards the front of the tunnel. Sonic looked behind him to see a bright red glow coming at them fast. It was then Sonic realized what was happening. The lava must have built up in that cavern they were in and had flowed into the tunnel

"It's the lava!" cried Sonic. He got to his feet as fast as he could, which was hard with the whole tunnel shaking wildly. He then dashed forward just as the lava suddenly burst forward into the tunnel, gushing towards them like a giant wave. Sonic scooped Tails up in his arms just a split second before the lava would have reached him. Sonic then sped up, trying to outrun the fast flowing lava. He would have easily outran the lava, but the tunnel was still shaking, making it hard for him just to run fast enough to stay ahead of the lava flow. By now, Sonic could see the end of the tunnel ahead of them and realized that there was nothing beyond the exit except for a ledge about ten feet across a deep canyon.

"Hang on Tails! We're going to have to jump!" cried Sonic. Tails gripped Sonic tighter as they hit the exit to the tunnel. Sonic pushed off with both feet, jumping over six feet into the air. Tails watched behind them as the lava burst from the tunnel, spilling into the canyon below. Sonic reached out with both hands and grasped the edge of the stone ledge by his fingertips. He strained as hard as he could, and managed to get a firm grip on the ledge.

But he knew that unless Tails was to get off him, he wouldn't be able to pull himself all the way up. He was already tired from just getting that better grip on the ledge. Thinking fast, he grabbed Tails by the fur on his back and flung him up into the air. Tails let out a yelp of pain as his fur was pulled out of his back, then he landed on the ledge with a small thud. Sonic quickly scrambled up onto the ledge, breathing heavily as he rested on his hands and knees.

"Man…that…was too…close," panted Sonic..

"I'll say, but did you have to pull my fur out?" asked Tails, reaching around to feel the small area on his back where there was now a bald patch.

"Sorry, but I couldn't pull myself up with you hanging onto me," said Sonic. Sonic then looked back at the lava still flowing from the tunnel.

"Wonder what caused the lava to come flowing through the tunnel like that?" said Sonic. Tails thought about it for a second. The tunnel had looked like it had been carved out of the mountain.

"I'll bet Knuckles designed that," said Tails. Sonic looked over at Tails, thinking he had lost it.

"You can't be serious," said Sonic.

"Hear me out. In normal active volcanos, the lava will build up inside the mountain. Eventually, when there's enough of it, the lava will be forced out of the mountain, which is what happens when it erupts. Now I think Knuckles built that tunnel to give the lava somewhere to go when it started to fill up the cavern. That way, the mountain wouldn't erupt and destroy a good portion of the island," said Tails.

"Good point," said Sonic. He then smiled and shook his head. "You are just too smart for your own good sometimes, you know that?" Tails blushed slightly.

"Maybe, but that won't help us get out of here," said Tails, pointing up. Sonic looked up to see that they were a long ways away from the top of the cliff they were on. He could see the glow of more lava above them, but it didn't seem like it was growing any, so it must have been in rivers deep enough to hold it.

"Well, guess we'd better get climbing," said Sonic. He reached for stone wall when Tails grabbed his arm.

"Sonic! Look!" cried Tails. Sonic looked around, expecting to see lava coming up from down below them. It would have fit in perfectly with how their luck had been running lately. But instead of the red glow of lava, he saw the rainbow glow of another teleporter ring.

"Well, at least there's some good coming out of being driven down here," said Sonic as he started climbing down the side of the cliff. Tails hovered down after him. Sonic leapt off the side of the cliff and into the ring, Tails fling in right behind him as it disappeared in a flash of light. They then reappeared again in Hidden Palace.

"Knuckles said this place was called Hidden Palace. I wonder why it's called that?" said Tails. Sonic had walked over to where the Master Emerald and the seven Super Emeralds sat on their pedestals. Five of the seven supers were charged, each one giving of the glow of its corresponding Chaos Emerald.

"I'll bet it's because of the Master Emerald," said Sonic, looking up at it. Tails walked over next to him and gazed up at the giant glowing gem.

"Yeah. Something that powerful shouldn't be out in the open," said Tails in agreement.

"Well," said Sonic as he walked over to one of the two remaining dead supers, "let's finish this up and get back the last two emeralds." Tails ran over to the other dead super. Then they both slapped the tops of the giant gems at the same time, both of them disappearing in a flash of light. A few minutes later, they both reappeared, Sonic grasping the white Chaos Emerald, Tails holding onto the light blue emerald. Both of the emeralds flew from their hands and hovered above their dead counterparts. Then both shot rays of colored light into them, the dead supers suddenly flashing to life as they were charged. But this time, the Chaos Emeralds didn't return to Sonic and Tails. They instead flew up to hover a few feet above the Master Emerald.

"What's up with those things?" asked Tails. Sonic merely shrugged, then felt several things fly out of his pack. He watched in amazement as the five other Chaos Emeralds joined the two above the Master Emerald. Each Chaos Emerald was in a direct line of sight with it's corresponding Super Emerald.

"Now what?" asked Tails.

"I don't know," said Sonic. He looked at the Master Emerald, gazing deep into its glowing core. For some reason, he felt he knew what he needed to do. He walked up to the Master Emerald, still gazing deep into it.

"What are you doing Sonic?" asked Tails. Sonic shook his head as Tails voice broke through his train of thought. He looked back at Tails.

"I'm not sure, but I think I'm supposed to touch the Master Emerald," said Sonic.

"But Sonic, that's how this whole thing started. You touched the Master Emerald and caused the supers to appear and the Chaos Emeralds to scatter to that dimension again," said Tails.

"I know, but for some reason, I know this is what I need to do," said Sonic, reaching out his hand. He hesitated slightly, the though of them losing the Chaos Emeralds again causing him to rethink this. But he shrugged off that concern. For some reason, he knew he needed to do this. He placed his palm on the glassy surface of the Master Emerald. Sonic was knocked back to the floor by some unforeseen force. Suddenly, the Master Emerald's glow increased greatly, Sonic and Tails had to shield their eyes against the bright light. But when it died down, the seven Chaos Emeralds were circling the Master Emerald rapidly, their glow increasing as well.

"What's going on?" cried Tails.

"I don't know," said Sonic. The Chaos Emeralds suddenly stopped in mid air. They hovered there for a few seconds, then the seven Super Emeralds shot a ray of white light into its Chaos Emerald counterpart. The Chaos Emeralds then shot their own beams of white light into the Master Emerald. As if by some hidden signal, all of the crystals in the chamber suddenly flashed brightly as the Master Emerald grew brighter for just a few seconds, then shot out seven beams of colored light at Sonic. Sonic and Tails watched in awe as the beams of light converged in Sonic's fist. A flash of light came out of Sonic's fist, then died down. Sonic slowly opened his fist, and he couldn't help but stare in awe at what he saw.

"Sonic? Are you okay?" asked Tails. Sonic turned to him, and Tails could have sworn he had never seen Sonic this happy since they had been on the island.

"Tails," said Sonic in almost a whisper. He showed Tails what was in his glove. "It gave me miniatures of the Super Emeralds." Tails stared at the seven small gems in Sonic's hand. Each one glowed their color brightly, and looked exactly like the Super Emeralds on the pedestals. Sonic and Tails looked up as the sound of something hitting the floor caught their attention.

"What was that?" asked Tails. Sonic walked over and picked the Chaos Emeralds up off the floor. By now, all of the crystals had returned to their normal glow, leaving the huge cavern lit once again by the emeralds.

"Just the Chaos Emeralds hitting the ground. I think you'd better take these," said Sonic, handing them to Tails, who slipped them into his pack. Sonic likewise put the supers into his pack. Then they disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing at the top of the cliff were they had escaped from the lava.

"Well, that was sure handy," said Sonic, looking over the edge.

"Sure was," said Tails in agreement. They turned around and looked about, seeing a few rivers of lava, all going over the side of another cliff. Sonic and Tails walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. About a quarter of a mile below them was a huge lake of lava probably a half mile wide with what looked like rock ledge ringing the whole lake.

"Man! I'd sure hate to fall into that lake," said Sonic. Tails just nodded. Sonic then spotted a tunnel entrance with a small ledge on the outside just over the lava lake. He then looked behind him, but there didn't appear to be any other way out of the cavern. 

"Well, let's get going," said Sonic. He then started to climb down the side of cliff, taking his time as he went down so as not to slip. Tails carefully started down after him. Sonic sighed as he climbed. At this rate, they wouldn't get to the bottom for at least another hour. They were cutting this too close. They would only have about half an hour to find the Death Egg after they reached the bottom of the cliff. Luckily, they reached the bottom with no problems. They then entered the tunnel, walking up its slope at a good pace. After about ten minutes of walking, they saw the exit. Sonic looked over at Tails.

"So how much time do we have?" asked Sonic. Tails glanced down at his watch.

"About twenty minutes left ," answered Tails. He then noticed that Sonic had stopped and was looking up the tunnel. He looked up to the exit. Standing there was none other than Knuckles.

"What do you want Knuckles?" asked Sonic, his voice ice cold. Tails felt braver now that they had both the supers and Chaos Emeralds with them. He walked up next to Sonic, his hands balled into fists and he wore a look of defiance on his face.

"You know what I want. I want you," said Knuckles. "You have overstayed your uninvited welcome. Now you will pay for trespassing on this island and its secrets." Sonic just crossed his arms and glared up at Knuckles. He saw Knuckles give him a smirk, then disappear from view. Sonic was about to run up to the tunnel's exit when he saw a huge rock moving towards the exit. Tails let out a scream of terror as he and Sonic saw what he was going to do. The boulder started to roll rapidly towards them. Sonic quickly grabbed Tails hand and sped back down the tunnel. While he could outrun the boulder, Sonic knew that if he were to speed up too much, he'd go flying out into the lava lake before he could stop. It was then that the whole situation hit him. This wasn't rivalry anymore. Knuckles was trying to kill them. Sonic could sense his anger growing rapidly into a giant inferno of rage. If this echidna wanted to kill them, then he'd have to do it on Sonic's terms. He reached behind him into his pack and pulled out the seven miniature supers.

"Tails. Keep running. If this doesn't work, you can still make it," whispered Sonic into Tails' ear. He didn't want Knuckles to be forewarned of what he was going to do. Tails nodded and then started running, his tails whirling behind him as he ran past Sonic, who slowed to a stop in less then a second. He turned around and held up the seven supers.

"That's it! You've crossed the line Knuckles!" cried Sonic. He saw Knuckles look down at him. He then clapped the seven gems above his head. He was blinded by a flash of white light and a loud buzz filled the whole tunnel. When the light died down, Sonic stood in the same place, but he was completely transformed. His entire body glowed and his blue fur and quills were now sparkling in a rainbow of seven colors. Large energy stars circled his body, some of them hitting the floor and disappearing with a hiss. His vision had been enhanced twenty times, giving him the eyes of a hawk.

"Now this is cool," said Sonic under his breath as he stared up at the tunnel's exit, glaring right at Knuckles with his fiery red eyes. The boulder was coming at him at well over 70 mph. But compared to Sonic, the boulder was just a pebble. Dashing forward, he grabbed onto the boulder, grinding its progress to a stop in less then a second. Sonic then shoved the boulder effortlessly back up the tunnel. He then went into a spindash and charged the boulder, shattering it to pieces as he blew through it like a hot knife through butter. He then looked back up towards Knuckles, who in turn dashed out of view. *Oh no you don't, Knuckles. This time you're not getting away,* thought Sonic as he flew up the tunnel. By now, Tails had reached the bottom of the tunnel and had stopped. He looked back up to see some flashing object fly out of the tunnel's exit.

"Was that Sonic?" said Tails to himself. Not wanting to be left behind, he started running back up the tunnel, but it was tough going, and he realized it be at least five minutes before he could reach them.

**********

I appeared in Hidden Palace in a flash of light. My eyes first went to the Master Emerald, as they always do. I sighed. It was safe. I then caught the sound of a voice, and I started to panic. And it was this panic that casued me to totally miss the seven glowing Super Emeralds sitting on the pedestals. Sonic and Tails were right outside Hidden Palace. And then the worst part of the situation hit me. After the last seismic quake caused by Lava Reef's volcanic activity, the rocks blocking the entrance had been shaken loose. I had never replaced the rocks afterwards, so they could plainly see the entrance to the palace! I slammed a fist into the wall. How could I have been so stupid as to not replace the rocks covering the very entrance to the most secret place on the whole island! In my panic, I failed to notice Metal Sonic appear in a corner and watch me, keeping his crimson eyes focused on me the whole time.

I could hear their voices getting louder. I still couldn't make out what they were saying, but I knew they were coming. I had to get rid of them somehow. And this time for keeps. A thought then came to my mind. I looked about the palace, looking for what I needed. I then spotted a nice round boulder about a foot taller than myself, but it was big enough that it would fill up enough of the tunnel and surely crush Sonic and Tails. I had had enough of them. They were too close for any kind of comfort. They had crossed the line. My anger with them was now pure hatred, and I wasn't about to let them live. I knew that if the boulder didn't crush them, then at least they'd fall into the lake of lava at the other end of the tunnel. Now I could hear their conversation as I moved the boulder across the cavern and into position.

"So how much time do we have?" said Sonic's voice.

"About twenty minutes left," said Tails. I frowned. Twenty minutes until what? I shook my head as I returned my focus back to dealing with them. I moved over to the exit of the tunnel and stood there, my fists against my hips. I could see them, Sonic leading Tails up the tunnel. I saw him look up at me, then stop.

"What do you want, Knuckles?" snarled Sonic's voice. I noticed that it had changed from his usual cockiness to a much more serious tone.

"You know what I want," I said to him. "I want you." Sonic just stared back at me. I could see Tails now standing defiantly by his side, no fear at all in his eyes. *That's a little odd,* I thought. Normally, Tails had a look of fear on him, but not this time. Oh well, that would change shortly. "You have overstayed your uninvited welcome. Now you will pay for trespassing on this island and its secrets." Sonic crossed his arms and glared at me, as if to dare me to do my worst. I smiled evilly down at him. I would do just that. I walked over to the boulder and easily pushed it up to the tunnel's exit. I heard Tails let out a scream of horror when he realized what I was going to do.

I then pushed the rock as hard as I could and it started down the tunnel after them, picking up speed quickly. I watched them as Sonic grabbed Tails by the hand and dashed down the slope of the tunnel, the boulder slowly gaining on him. While he was a good distance out in front of it, I knew that if he were to stop, he wouldn't have enough time to be able to speed back up again. But what happened next took me completely by surprise. I saw Tails continue running while Sonic skidded to a stop. I then saw him hold up something that was glowing in the colors of the rainbow in both of his hands.

"That's it! You've crossed the line Knuckles!" I heard him cry from down below. I watched as he struck the things together above his head. I figured he was using the Chaos Emeralds, but I was caught completely off guard as a blinding flash of white light filled the whole tunnel, followed closely by a loud buzzing sound. I had to cover my eyes from the brightness. When my vision cleared, I looked back down the tunnel and was completely shocked. Sonic's blue fur and quills were now flashing in a rainbow of seven colors, his quills sticking out like he was full of static electricity. Several large energy stars circled his body as he stared up at me with fiery red eyes. I realized my mouth was open and I quickly shut it. Was this the power of the Super Emeralds? My father had told me legends of a few echidna's who had used the power of the Super Emeralds to go hyper, but I never thought I'd live to see someone actually become hyper. And how had he gained their power? They were supposed to have been decharged and hidden from everyone, including the Guardian of Floating Island.

I watched in amazement as Hyper Sonic rushed the boulder. He grabbed it with both hands and picked it up off the ground. He then threw the boulder back up tunnel, and then spindashed through it, smashing the boulder to millions of little pebbles. I saw him stare up at me, complete hatred filling his eyes. He then shot forward, flying up the tunnel towards me. Finally, I found the courage to move again and I took off, running back towards where the Master Emerald was. I had an idea that I hoped would work, because it was my last chance to stop Sonic before he reached the Master Emerald.

END OF CHAPTER 10


	11. Hidden Palace

****

Chapter 11

Hidden Palace

I ran back towards the palace, taking a quick glance over my shoulder. Sonic flew out of the mouth of the tunnel, and even from this distance, I could see the fire in his eyes. I knew I'd never make it back to the emerald chamber in time, so I figured this was as good a spot as any to give Sonic my challenge. I turned around, my eyes catching a glance of the mural on the wall. It showed a picture of a giant figure grasping a green gem like object, and a yellow, blue, and red figure fighting it to take back the object. For some reason, I had always felt a connection of some kind to that mural, but I had never figured out why. But I shook of the familiar feeling and turned all the way around. Hyper Sonic flew over to within twenty feet of me and just hovered there a few inches off the ground, his face one of pure rage.

"You have crossed the line Knuckles," said Sonic as he floated in front f me, his flashing fur and quills providing a dazzling display of colored light in the room. I took a step forward, which surprised me since I knew I was no match for him at this point.

"You don't even know what the line is, hedgehog!" I shouted at him. "YOU can to MY island, invaded MY home, went to MY Hidden Palace without MY consent, and now YOU say that I'VE crossed the line in defending MY home!?" I could tell that my anger was reaching its peak. My fists almost vibrated with the strength of the anger I felt, but somehow I managed to keep my voice calm as I said what I hoped would make the odds even. I crossed my arms across my chest and gave him a hard stare.

"Besides, you say your hot stuff, yet you have to use the power of the supers to take me on. Now that is surely the sign of a weak person, taking an advantage as soon as you see it," I said. I looked at his reaction, and was actually shocked to see him strike the supers together, his flashing colors changing back to their cool blue. He then put he supers into his pack and tossed it over to the opening to the tunnel.

"I don't need the supers to take you on," said Sonic in a chillingly evil sounding voice. I could tell he was very serious now, all his cockiness gone, his mind totally focused on me. I smiled inwardly. My plan had worked. Sonic was no longer invincible, and he wasn't as fast as lightning anymore. This would be a fair match. His speed versus my strength.

"And I don't need to cheat to win either. I will fight honorably," I said. And I wasn't lying. I always fought a battle honorably, at least until my foe didn't. And I could tell by the look in Sonic's eyes that he had no intention of cheating. He wanted to take me down by himself. And that was fine with me. I took a proper fighting stance, and threw a few warm up punches. Sonic also went into a fighting stance. I waited for him to make the first move.

I almost didn't even see it coming. He shot forward, going from 0 to 90 in less than a second. I tried to dodge, but I wasn't anywhere near as fast as he was. He curled up and spindashed into me, knocking me to the ground. The pain was intense, and I wanted to cry out. But I held it back and instead turned my pain into rage. I lunged forward, throwing a punch at Sonic. Sonic leaped above it, but I threw a second punch, an uppercut, and caught him in his left side as he came back down. Sonic went flying back ten feet and landed hard on his right side.

I could see him close his eyes tight from the pain, but he didn't make any noise. He stood back up, and we both circled one another, eyeing each other like a cobra does before it strikes. Then Sonic shot forward, and tried to spindash me again. But I was onto him this time. I leapt above him and gave him a swift kick to his right side, knocking him to the ground. I heard him left out a gasp of pain, but he jumped back up to his feet and rushed me. I prepared to dodge another spindash, but this time Sonic instead leaped into the air. I wasn't ready for him to do that, and so my guard above myself was down. He connected with both of his feet, knocking me to backwards and to the ground. I slowly stood back up, panting. Sonic, too, was showing signs of tiring. We both eyed each other, fire still burning brightly in both of our eyes.

Sonic then rushed me again. But I sidestepped and grabbed his outstretched arm. I then twisted it back, and I heard him cry out as I nearly broke his arm. But he turned the momentum he had back against me and swung his feet around and kicked me in the back of my head, knocking me forward and to the ground. We both laid there, breathing heavily. I was the first to try and get back to my feet, but my strength had left me. I could only sit up on my hands and knees and look at Sonic, who had managed to get to his hands and knees as well. We both remained like that for about a minute, then I found the strength to get back to my feet. I slowly stood up and ran at Sonic, who was still to weak to get to his feet. I had him.

**********

Tails ran up the slope of the tunnel and could hear voices echoing from up above. They were too far away to understand, but he was sure it had to be Sonic and Knuckles. He ran faster, his twin tails spinning rapidly behind him as he tried to get back up to the exit. But he was exhausted. First the lava incident, then the climb down the side of the cliff. Then walking up the tunnel, and then running when Knuckles had sent a boulder down at them, and now running back up trying to catch up to Sonic. Tails panted heavily and came to a stop, falling to his knees.

"Sonic…I…I'm…coming…," he panted under his breath. He then looked back up at the tunnel's exit. It seemed to be over a hundred miles away at this point, he was so exhausted. He slowly got to his feet and started to run up the slope again, but his strength left him and he tripped and fell to the stone ground. He picked himself up and sat there, trying to get his energy back.

Then his ears perked up as an idea came to him. Why not use the Chaos Emeralds that were in his pack? Sonic had always said that he felt like he was just bursting with energy when he used them. Tails pulled his pack off and opened it up, looking at the seven glowing gems inside. He pulled them out and looked at them. He seemed to become lost in their glow as he stared at them. He closed his eyes and clapped them together above his head. A flash of white light shone from the small fox's body as the emeralds power surged through him. When he opened his eyes, he found himself floating a few inches off the ground, his orange fur now glowing a bright yellow, the emeralds orbiting his body.

"Whoa! What a rush!" said Tails as he looked himself over. Suddenly, four flashes of fiery light came flying into the tunnel from the entrance down where the lava lake was. Tails squinted, trying to see what they were. His now enhanced vision picked out one of the lights from the four and focused in on it. But the light wasn't fire. It was instead some kind of cardinal-like bird. And it was glowing a hot yellow. The four birds flew up to Tails and started circling his head. Intrigued by the birds, Tails held out one of his fingers. "Hi," he said. The biggest of the birds landed on Tails' finger. It wasn't very heavy, but still, it seemed to pulse with power.

"Hello. We are the Power Flickies. We were called to your universe by a novice using the power of the Chaos Emeralds. We will guide you in how to use the power properly and protect you when you need help," said the bird. It then cocked it head. "What is your name?"

"My name is Tails," said Tails.

"I like that name," said the flicky. Suddenly, all four of the Power Flickies turned their attention towards the tunnel's exit. "You must hurry. Your friend is in danger." Tails looked up at the tunnel exit and the flicky returned to its position in their formation. Tails then took off for the tunnel's exit, all his exhaustion gone. He noticed he had become a lot faster too. He could swear he was almost as fast as Sonic now. He flew out of the tunnel and was searching the room when he spotted them. There on the ground next to a giant mural lay Sonic and Knuckles, both panting loudly. Tails then saw Knuckles slowly get to his feet, and it was then he realized that Sonic wasn't going to get up in time.

"Help him!" Tails cried to the flickies. They all nodded in union and dove towards Knuckles. Knuckles rushed Sonic and Tails thought he might be too late. But just before he got to Sonic, the flickies flew in front of him and started knocking their small bodies into the echidna, knocking him backwards. Tails took this opportunity to fly down and land next to Sonic. He reached down and pulled Sonic to his feet.

"Are you okay?" asked Tails, worry deep set in his voice. Sonic shook his head and winced in pain as he put his weight down on his right side.

"I think…," said Sonic. He checked himself over. "At least nothing's broken."

"Get these things off of me!" cried Knuckles' voice. Sonic and Tails turned their attention over to where the flickies had pinned Knuckles to the stone wall. The lead flicky turned to Tails.

"What do you want us to do with him?" it asked. Tails couldn't stand to see even Knuckles being pinned to the wall, helpless like this.

"Let him go," said Tails. The flickies looked at him, puzzlement evident on their faces. But they obeyed him and released Knuckles from his pinned position. He slumped to the floor, completely exhausted. Tails walked over to him and offered him his hand. Knuckles looked up and hesitated. He looked over at Sonic, who just nodded. Knuckles sighed and then took Tails hand, and was then pulled to his feet by the young fox.

**********

I stood there, completely puzzled. Why hadn't they killed me? They had had me powerless to do anything to stop them, yet they had let me go? Why? I looked over at Tails, and saw the four glowing flickies flying around his head, each one had their eyes trained on me, watching me closely. I then looked into Tails eyes and saw a look of compassion. Why would he have compassion for me? I tried to kill him.

"Thank you," I said. Tails just smiled. I turned my eyes towards Sonic, who seemed to have calmed down a lot since the fight. I then noticed that I had too, my anger almost gone. I suddenly realized what I had almost done. I had been on the verge of killing Sonic. Even someone who was after the Master Emerald didn't deserve that fate. I had almost betrayed my good nature. I saw Sonic let out a sigh, then he looked at me, shaking his head.

"Well, that was sure a rumble that I wouldn't want to repeat," he said, laughing lightly as he went over and picked up his pack. I couldn't help but smile at what he said. That was exactly the way I felt. As Sonic walked back towards me and Tails, a loud blast sounded from behind us, back in the direction of the emerald chamber. We all looked over towards the source of the sound. I suddenly felt my strength flood back into me as I realized that someone was in the very core of Hidden Palace. I ran out ahead of Sonic and Tails and into the room. I stopped in my tracks as I saw what was taking place. Robotnik had just blasted his way into Hidden Palace and was now lifting the Master Emerald out of its resting place with his hovercraft. It was then realization hit me. Sonic and Tails weren't after the Master Emerald at all! I had been tricked! The one who was really after the Master Emerald was…

"YOU!" I cried. "YOU were the one after the Master Emerald this whole time!" I saw Robotnik look out the glass dome at me, then his ship turned and started towards the ventilation shaft that kept Hidden Palace's air circulated. I took off after the craft, knowing that if I didn't catch him and get the Master Emerald back, then Floating Island would crash into the sea and sink. I leaped into the air and grasped onto the side of the glassy surface of the Master Emerald. I guess Tails and Sonic must have been in there by then, because I saw the Power Flickies fly past my head and throw their bodies at the hovercraft. I heard it's engines whine each time a flicky touched it, but the thing wouldn't let go of the emerald.

"So, you finally figured it out, echidna. I figured you would eventually," said Robotnik's voice over the speaker. "However, you figured it out a little too late. So this is goodbye, and good night." I don't remember exactly what happened next. The only thing I can remember is two pieces of metal touching the side of my head, then a sharp pain shoot through my head, and then blackness.

**********

Sonic and Tails burst into the emerald chamber to see Knuckles yelling up at Robotnik in his hovercraft.

"How'd he get here?" asked Tails in shock.

"I don't know, but he's not getting away with that emerald," said Sonic as he pulled the supers out of his pack and clapped them together, their energy flowing into him as his body started flashing through the cycle of colors and the energy stars circled his body once more. He started to fly towards the craft when something metallic slammed him hard from the side, knocking him into the side of the wall. Sonic looked up to see Metal Sonic hovering twenty feet away from him, his black and crimson eyes set dead center on him.

"Well well, look at the new trick the hedgehog has learned," said Metal Sonic as he hovered. Sonic smiled as he looked at Mecha. Now that he was Hyper Sonic, he knew he could take the robot on with ease.

"Tails, you stop Robotnik! I'll take care of Mecha!" yelled Sonic. Sonic saw Tails point towards Robotnik's ship as the four Power Flickies took off towards it. Sonic then turned his attention back to the blue robot.

"All right Mecha. We finish this here and now," said Sonic. Metal Sonic just crossed his arms and looked at Sonic.

"Ah, but I think there is something even more important to worry about than me," said Metal Sonic. Sonic looked up. "You see, you're little echidna friend over there is about to get one heck of a shock, then fall thirty-five feet to his death." Metal Sonic pointed with a claw towards Robotnik's ship, which now had Knuckles clutching the Master Emerald and a pair of metal probes connected with his head. He saw Knuckles go limp and fall off the emerald. Sonic broke into a supersonic flight, breaking the sound barrier open in less than a second as he rushed over towards his fallen friend. He caught him and slowly set him to the ground. He looked back up to see Robotnik's craft vanish from view out of the ventilation shaft, Metal Sonic now nowhere to be seen. Then a loud blast sounded as the ventilation shaft became covered in rocks from above. Robotnik had blasted the hole shut, trapping them in the underground palace.

"This is just GREAT!" yelled Sonic as he slammed a fist into the floor. Tails landed next to him and decharged himself, the flickies color changing to a cool blue that matched Sonic's color.

"Now what do we do?" asked Tails. Sonic looked up, then slowly looked down.

"I don't know. I just don't know," said Sonic. He sighed. "First thing we need to do is get Knuckles awake." Sonic clapped the supers together, his color fading back to blue. He then put the emeralds into Knuckles' hands and clapped them together. Knuckles' started to glow a hot reddish pink as the supers filled his body with their power. Sonic and Tails watched as Knuckles started to stir. He then opened his eyes and quickly sat up.

***********

"Where is he!?" I yelled. I suddenly froze as I realized I didn't hurt anymore. I looked down at myself to see my fur glowing a bright reddish pink color. I looked over at Sonic. "What happened?" Sonic shook his head.

"He got away. Tails and I tried to stop him, but Mecha showed up and I got distracted by the though of being rid of him forever," said Sonic. He looked down at the floor, and he looked like he was about to cry. "It's my fault!" he shouted, slamming his fist into the floor. "If Floating Island is destroyed, it'll be my fault!"

"No it's not!" I cried. Sonic looked up at me. "It's my fault! I'm the one who was supposed to protect the Master Emerald and Floating Island. I failed to do that. And now because I didn't trust my instincts on who was the real enemy, it's gone." Then a rumble filled the chamber. I saw Tails look down at his watch, not yet realizing that having gone super, his watch would be fried by the emeralds' power. Then it hit me. The twenty minutes they were talking about was the time until the Death Egg would launch again.

"Well, looks like we didn't get to the Death Egg in time," said Sonic. I looked up suddenly as an idea came to me. Maybe they could still get on board the Death Egg before it escaped the atmosphere.

"No, but you have the supers and the Chaos Emeralds, right? And you can both fly using them, right?" I said. Sonic nodded. "Well, there's an access hatch just underneath the nose part of the face. I saw it when I was helping him make the final preparations during its first launch back at Launch Base." I struck the supers together, my fur fading back to its crimson color. I clenched my fists and teeth as the pain returned, but I still found the strength to stand. I handed the supers to Sonic and then, walked over to a wall, and motioned for them to come over.

"I'm not in any shape to take on the Death Egg, but I think you two stand a chance with the emeralds on your side," I said.

"But how can we get up to the Death Egg in time? I took us over an hour just to get here from that pyramid," said Sonic. I waved a finger.

"Ah, but you didn't have me on your side before," I said. I then punched the wall in a certain spot. Now to anyone looking at it, it would seem to be solid rock, but I knew it was only a few centimeters thick. The wall crumbled down, leading into another room where a giant red orb sat in the middle of a small machine.

"What is that?" asked Tails as he ran over to it, examining the machine all over.

"That, my friend, is a teleporter that at one time was used by my race before they were wiped out. I still haven't figured out what exactly that orb is made of, but when power is added to it, it can teleport anyone to wherever they need to go," I said. Suddenly, the ground beneath us left our feet, and we lifted off the ground slightly, then we fell down in a heap, me landing on top of Tails, who landed on top of Sonic. One of the flickies jumped up off its perch on the machine.

"The Master Emerald has left the vicinity! The island is falling!" it cried. I climbed off of Tails and ran over to the controls, quickly setting the coordinates we needed into its ancient computer brain.

"Come on! We have to hurry!" I said, motioning to Sonic and Tails to touch the orb. They picked themselves up and walked over to the orb. They reached out with a hand and touched it. I then placed my hand onto it. There was a flash of light, and the feeling of going straight up in an extraordinarily fast elevator came over me, as I'm sure happened to Sonic and Tails too. Then we stopped. There was a thick fog around us, not surprising since it was still early morning. Despite the fog, I knew where we were.

"Now don't move until I tell you to. No telling where the edges to the platforms are," I said to them. I then walked slowly across the platform, searching for the switch that I needed to trip. I found it and tripped it, and a light warm current of air started blowing across the platform. The fog started to swirl and dissipate as the wind blew it away. When the fog had cleared, we were standing on a platform that was over two miles above Floating Island.

"Where are we?" asked Sonic, looking down at Floating Island, which was still in the middle of its descent into the ocean. I looked over at him and smiled.

"Welcome to Sky Sanctuary," I said.

END OF CHAPTER 11


	12. Sky Sanctuary

****

Chapter 12

Sky Sanctuary

"This place is incredible," said Silver to himself as he walked about the Mushroom Forest. He had arrived on the island only an hour ago, and already he was greatly impressed with what all he saw. He had already seen the vast desert from the air, and had noticed the Death Egg resting atop the mountain range. But even the sight of the Death Egg couldn't spoil all this natural beauty he saw. He flew up and out of the forest, looking about. He knew he had a mission to do, but where was the best place to start looking for this echidna.

"Man, this is going to take me days to search this whole island," said Silver under his breath. But something flickering out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned towards the flickering light to see a shaft of blue light shoot up from the mountain range and head into a patch of clouds above the island.

"Well, that's as good a place as any to start looking," said Silver as he flew off towards the patch of clouds where the beam of light was now fading from.

**********

"Wow! How high up are we?" asked Tails as he looked over the edge of the platform.

"About 2 and a half miles above sea level right now. There are a few more areas higher than this, but this area was the closest to where the Death Egg should be launching from," said Knuckles.

"How long do you think before it gets up far enough to see?" asked Sonic.

"About ten minutes I would think," answered Knuckles. "You should be able to get on board it then." Suddenly, Knuckles' eyes shifted into a glare.

"What?" asked Sonic. Knuckles motioned for him to be quite.

"I'm not sure. I sense something close by, watching us," whispered Knuckles. Tails suddenly looked scared.

"It's not Metal Sonic, is it?" he asked.

"I don't think so. I don't have that eerie feeling that comes over me when I know I'm being watched by him," said Knuckles. Suddenly, a figure appeared from an area of fog that was still lingering. A round shape bigger than any of the three of them became visible. The whole thing looked like a robotic version of Robotnik with a jet pack and a laser cannon.

"An Eggbot!" cried Sonic as the robot lifted its laser cannon towards them. Sonic and Tails jumped back as it fired, just barely getting out of the way of its blast. Knuckles, on the other hand, rushed the robot, his fist ready to deliver a crushing blow to the robot. But the Eggbot activated its jet pack and shot out of range of Knuckles' punch. It then charged its laser again, intent on blasting Knuckles this time. Sonic quickly dashed out and snatched Knuckles out from underneath the Eggbot just as it fired, scorching the ground where he had been just a second ago.

"Thanks," said Knuckles.

"Don't mention it," said Sonic. He then looked back up at the Eggbot, its aim switching over to Tails, who was now trying to get the Chaos Emeralds from his pack. Sonic realized that the Eggbot would fire before Tails could go super. Thinking fast, Sonic clapped the supers together that were still in his hands. His quills flashed to a multitude of colors, the energy stars circling his glowing body. He shot up and grabbed the Eggbot with both hands, sending his invincibility into it, overloading its systems. The Eggbot let out a shriek before it went limp in Sonic's grasp. Sonic then dropped it to the stone platform below, then landed next to Tails.

"That was a close one," said Sonic. Tails was about to agree when his mouth suddenly hung open and he lifted a finger towards another area of still dense fog. Sonic and Knuckles looked over towards where Tails was pointing to see over a dozen other Eggbots fly into view.

"This just keeps getting better and better," said Knuckles sarcastically as he took a fighting stance. Sonic stepped forward and grabbed Knuckles by the shoulder.

"No. Leave these guys to me and Tails. You're in no shape to take on this many," said Sonic. Knuckles nodded and stepped back, catching a glimpse of light behind him as Tails struck the Chaos Emeralds together, his fur glowing bright yellow and the four Power Flickies returning to their orbit around his head, once again filled with the emeralds' power.

"Good luck," said Knuckles as Sonic and Tails took to the air, flying away from the platform, the Eggbots following them.

"Okay. We'll fly out straight for two minutes, then you break left and I'll break right. Head straight for them and attack," said Sonic.

"Okay Sonic," said Tails. He looked up at the four Power Flickies. "You guys ready to have some fun?" The lead flicky looked down at Tails with a smile.

"That's why we're here, Tails," it said. They continued in their straight flight, making sure the Eggbots were still behind them, which wasn't hard since they were firing their laser cannons the whole time. Suddenly, Sonic broke off right, and Tails made a sharp turn left. The Eggbots, disarrayed by the maneuver, tried to figure out which one was the one to go after. Their CPU's were designed to be able to handle choice making decisions, and after a few seconds of processing, half of them turned to follow Tails, and the other half turned to follow Sonic.

"These guys just don't get it," said Sonic under his breath as he whipped around and flew back towards the six Eggbots pursuing him. The lead Eggbot, not expecting the move and being too close to Sonic when he executed it, was blown to pieces by a spindash as Sonic plunged his spinning body through it. The five others dodged out of Sonic's way, but one wasn't quick enough and fell victim to electrocution from being touched by Sonic, who grabbed the Eggbot by the arm and held on as he flew out of the Eggbots' small circle. He then tossed the now smoking Eggbot towards the ocean below before turning back towards the other Eggbots.

"Okay. Who wants to be next?" asked Sonic. The Eggbots fired their jet packs, blasting towards him. Sonic shook his head saying, "They just never learn." He curled up into a spindash and bounced off of two of the Eggbots, knocking the laser cannons from their grasp. He then crashed his body into a third Eggbot, it exploding as Sonic spindashed through it. The fourth Eggbot fired its laser cannon, and caught Sonic squarely in the chest. The hyper hedgehog flew back a few feet, acting like he was in terrible pain as he held his hands on the spot where the laser had hit him. The three Eggbots, their simple CPU's deciding Sonic was injured, moved over to capture him. As they reached out to grab him, Sonic looked up with a smile on his face.

"Gotch ya!" he said as he grabbed two of the Eggbots by the legs, shorting them out as they shrieked, then went limp. The last Eggbot, finally figuring out that Sonic was superior than itself, turned and tried to make a run for it. But Sonic wasn't about to let it get away. He shot forward and went into a spindash, crashing his glowing body into the robot. It gave a shriek just before it exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. Sonic looked over to see Tails still dogging it out with three Eggbots. Up to that point, Tails had gotten one of them, the Power Flickies having nailed two others. Sonic leaned back and just floated as he watched his friend battle the remaining threat from the sidelines.

"Watch out Tails! There's one behind you!" cried the smallest flicky. Tails dodged to the left, just missing a laser blast. While he knew he was invincible, he still wasn't sure just how much pain he would feel by being hit by a shot, so he tried to avoid it as much as possible. The third flicky left the formation, flying at an Eggbot that was approaching from the side. The little flicky slammed its small body into the Eggbot, knocking it back and causing its jet pack to whine as the small amount of invincibility that had went through its systems shorted out a few systems.

"Okay, here's the plan," said Tails as he dodged another blast from the same Eggbot. "I'll go left and take out the trigger happy one. You guys go and take care of the other two." The flickies nodded as Tails made a sharp turn to the left, the flickies turning hard to the right. Sonic watched as he saw Tails perform the move, and was impressed by how well the young fox worked with the Power Flickies. He saw Tails grab the trigger happy Eggbot from behind, shorting it out as it started to smoke. The Power Flickies dove towards the last two remaining Eggbots, the four of them breaking off into pairs. Then they started to twirl like a drill bit, spinning their tiny bodies around really fast. Sonic watched as each pair of flickies punctured through the Eggbots, causing them to explode. He then flew over to meet the excited fox, who had just seen his first real fight by himself.

"So Tails, I see you made out pretty well," said Sonic as he floated up next to the two tailed fox. Tails blushed slightly.

"Well, I had some help from the flickies," said Tails. Sonic messed up Tails head fur with his hand.

"Kid, you just had your first real fight by yourself and didn't even get hit once. I'm proud of ya," said Sonic. Tails just laughed as Sonic messed his fur. Then one of the flickies flew over to Sonic.

"The Death Egg is coming. We must prepare to board it," said the flicky. Sonic and Tails looked down to see the giant orb break through the top of the clouds, its gray hull looking like a giant thunder storm cloud.

"Well, looks like it's now or never Tails. You don't have to come if you don't want to. You've been through enough," said Sonic. Tails looked over at him, and Sonic noticed his eyes were as serious as he had ever seen them.

"There is no way I'm missing this! I've been there by your side through this whole thing, and I'm keeping it that way, even if we go to space," said Tails. Sonic just laughed.

"I knew you'd say that Tails. I was just kidding with you. Of course I want you to come. This is our fight, and we'll fight it together," said Sonic. Tails smiled and nodded. Then the two of them flew down the outer hull of the Death Egg and up to the access hatch Knuckles had described to them located under the nose.

"Here we go, venturing into the unknown. Wandering into who knows where. Flying head first into…" said Sonic.

"Knock it off Sonic," said Tails. Sonic turned and smiled.

"Sorry. I just can't help myself sometimes," said Sonic as they flew up next to the access hatch.

****

****Knuckles' Side Ending****

I watched as Sonic and Tails flew out of view. But something still didn't feel quite right. There was still a presence real close by. I suddenly had that chilling feeling, and I knew who it had to be.

"Show yourself, Mecha. I know you're here," I said aloud. I looked about the platform, then I saw his form wavering back in from deactivating his cloaking device.

"Very good, echidna. I am impressed. Few have ever sensed my approach before," said Metal Sonic as he walked over towards me until he stood only a few feet away. "It is such a pity. You would have made a fine ally, but alas, you have sided with the hedgehog." I took a step back, fire burning in my eyes.

"You're one to talk. You lied to me from the start," I said to the robot. He merely shrugged and turned his back to me, taking a few steps away.

"Part of what I told you was true. Sssonic is a threat to my master's empire, a threat that can not be allowed to interfere," said Metal Sonic. He then turned back towards me. "But now, you have proved where your loyalties lie, and for that you have sealed your fate." Even with all my years of training from my father, I still caught off guard by Metal Sonic's attack. He spun around and leaped at me, knocking me to the ground. I fell onto my back, a yell escaping me as I landed on a still extremely sore spot from my fight with Sonic in Hidden Palace. But I fought back the pain and pulled my fist back, slamming it into Metal Sonic's eye lenses. He flew off of me, landing on his back a few feet away. I quickly rose to my feet. I saw Metal Sonic also rising to his feet, a large crack in his left eye lens. The left pupil was flickering on and off, damaged by my punch.

"Nicely done, Knuckles. You fight well," said Metal Sonic as he stared me down. I heard a faint humming noise and realized that it was his engine. Mecha shot forward, his claws outstretched. I dove to the ground, just barely missing his razor sharp claws as he flew by overhead. I jumped to my feet and turned around, only to be punched in the face by Mecha. I flew back to the platform, where I stayed. I was still very weak from my fight with Sonic in Hidden Palace, while Metal Sonic was only slightly damaged. He had the advantage now, and I knew it. I tried to get up, but my strength had left me. I could only push my upper body up just enough to watch as Mecha walked over to me, reach down, and grab me by the throat. He picked me up off the ground, and tightened his grip, cutting off my air supply.

"Such a waste," said Metal Sonic as he stared at me with his crimson eyes. "I would Roboticize you, but I think you're just better off dead." I struggled as best I could, but he was way stronger than I was at this point, and I couldn't get free. I could feel the darkness start to creep into my head. I was losing consciousness fast. I tried to breath again, but I couldn't. I was helpless. The darkness was coming faster, and I was almost glad to welcome it. I had failed. Floating Island would sink into the ocean and the Master Emerald was now in the hands of evil. But before I went unconscious, I heard a different, unfamiliar voice cry out.

"Why don't you pick on someone of your own kind!" cried the voice. The next thing I knew, I was flung sideways by something. I gasped for air, and after a few breaths, my vision started to clear. Even though I was still dazed, I noticed the outline of a second figure that looked remarkably like Sonic. But he wasn't blue. He was a shiny silver color, his metallic quills shimmering in the morning light. I looked up to see a robotic hedgehog standing between me and Metal Sonic. It took me a few seconds, but I managed to stand back up, a little wobbly, but I still managed to get to my feet.

"Thanks," I said to the new robot. He didn't take his eyes off Mecha as he replied.

"Don't mention it," said the silver robot. I watched as he went into a fighting stance, metallic claws extending from within his fingers. "All right Mecha. Let's you and me dance, shall we?"

"Let's," said Metal Sonic as he lifted off the ground. The silver robot also took to the air, and the two robots circled around. Metal Sonic made the first move, shooting forward towards the silver robot. But the silver robot dodged to the side, then swung his left foot around and caught Metal Sonic in the side, knocking the blue robot back a few meters. But Metal Sonic steadied himself, then shot forward again.

The silver robot tried to dodge again, but Mecha was ready for him this time and changed his course to follow, slamming himself head first into the silver robot's chest. The silver robot flew back a few meters as well, but was still able to maintain his flight. I watched the two of them fly back and forth, each getting a few hits on the other one. Then the silver robot managed to grab hold of Mecha, and I watched as he went into a nose dive, dragging Mecha along for the ride. The silver robot came within ten feet of the ground, then let go of Metal Sonic, flinging him to the stone ground below. I saw my one chance to get in on the fight, and I wasn't about to let it get away. Metal Sonic had caused me a lot of misery, and now was the time to pay him back for it. I ran forward as fast as my weakened body would allow me to. I saw Metal Sonic getting to his feet. I knew I had only one shot, but I didn't care.

"Now you're mine, you overgrown can opener!" I cried as I pulled my fist back. I saw Mecha turn towards me, obviously shocked that I was still able to fight. I slammed my best punch into his engine intake, bending the spike inside it as I sent Metal Sonic flying back into a pillar. A huge indentation of Metal Sonic was left in it as he slumped to the ground, his entire body going limp as his pupils lost their glow, vanishing into the blackness of his eyes. I stood there, panting heavily as the silver robot landed next to me.

"Man, that was a good punch," the robot said just before I collapsed to the ground. The silver robot caught me as I dropped. "Whoa there! I think you might have over exerted yourself." I smiled weakly, then looked up at the robot, getting my first real good look at him. For all of Mobius, he looked like a silver version of Sonic, all the way down to how his quills looked. His yellow eyes cast their soft glow onto my face, and somehow I knew he had a very gentle persona about him, even though he was a fierce fighter.

"Thanks for the help," I said as he helped me to my feet.

"Hey, no problem," said the robot.

"What's your name?" I asked him, looking over into his yellow eyes.

"My name's Silver the Hedgehog, but you can just call me Silver," he said. He then let go of me and looked over at Mecha, who was still slumped against the pillar, looking as though he was off-line. I could only hope it was for good.

"You did quite a number on Metal Sonic. I haven't seen him off-line during a fight for ever since I've known him," said Silver. Turning back to me, he asked, "By the way, you're name wouldn't happen to be Knuckles, would it?" I looked up at him quickly. How did this robot know my name?

"Uh…yes it is. How do you know my name?" I asked him.

"Sonic sent me a message saying what had happened out here," said Silver. He began to walk over to Metal Sonic's lifeless form. I walked over to it with him. Silver knelt down and examined him.

"You sure that's safe?" I asked him.

"Not really, but he took a hard hit. He'll probably be out for at least another hour before his systems reset themselves," said Silver. I looked down at the blue robot, still loathing him for what all he had put me through. I brought my foot forward to give him a swift kick in the side. But what happened next neither one of us was prepared for. Metal Sonic's left arm shot up and grabbed my leg, then his right arm punched Silver backwards and to the ground.

"What the…!?" was all I got out before my leg was yanked out from underneath me. I fell to the ground with a thud. I heard a click noise coming from my foot, and the horror of what Metal Sonic was doing hit me head on. He was after the Master Emerald miniature! I tried to get to my feet, but he merely tugged my leg out from under me again. I knew I couldn't get to him in time. "Silver! Stop him! He's going to take the miniature Master Emerald!" I saw Silver stand up behind me, his systems now rebalance after Mecha's strike.

"I'm on it!" shouted Silver as he shot forward. Suddenly, I was lifted off the ground and flung towards Silver. We both hit in midair and fell to the ground in a heap. I was the first to get my bearings. I looked over to where Metal Sonic now stood, his pupils glowing like normal. It was then I realized what had happened. He had tricked us! He had only pretended to shut down. And now he had the Master Emerald's miniature.

"You are both fools!" cried Metal Sonic as he held the softly glowing gem above his head. Silver and I watched in horror as Metal Sonic clapped his other hand against the glassy surface of the jewel. He let out a cry as the power of the Master Emerald flooded his systems, a bright light filling the air. At first, I thought he had shorted himself out, but that wasn't the case. When the light died down, Metal Sonic was floating in the air, his blue hull now glowing a dull gold color. His red pupils now glowed so brightly, they almost covered the entire black part of his eyes.

"This isn't good," I said to Silver. "He's harnessed the Master Emerald's power. He's gone super!" Silver looked as scared as I was at this information. We both looked back up at Mecha, who in turn looked down at us. He then placed both of his hands in front of him.

"Now you two shall meet your fate!" said Metal Sonic as a bright ball of chaos energy formed in front of his hands. I grabbed Silver's hand and leaped out of the way as Metal Sonic shot the chaos blast at the spot where we just were. The ball of energy slammed into the floor, blowing a gaping hole in it. We both stared with our mouths open. We both turned and ran as Metal Sonic flew after us, his engine now giving off a bright gold glow instead of the usual blue. I looked back to see him charging up another ball of chaos energy.

"He's going to fire again!" I yelled at Silver. He looked at me, then reached over and grabbed me by the arm. He then flew up and away as an energy ball slammed into the platform, just missing us by a few inches. Silver then aimed his arm back at Metal Sonic and fired a few laser blasts at him, only to have the bounce off his invincible hull without leaving a scratch.

"We can't stop him. He's invincible as long as he stays super, and I'm not sure how long it will take before he overloads himself," I said. Silver dodged to the left, taking me with him as another ball of chaos energy flew by, exploding as it impacted a pillar a few meters ahead of us. I looked back over my shoulder, certain that Metal Sonic would be within feet of catching us. But for some reason, he wasn't anywhere behind us. *Where did he go?* I thought to myself. Silver stopped and floated in mid air with me still hanging onto him.

"What is he up to?" I heard Silver mutter.

"What? What's he doing?" I asked. Silver shook his head.

"I'm not sure. According to my scanners, he's leaving," said Silver. I should have been relieved by this information, but something about it worried me.

"Where's he headed?" I asked.

"Back towards that," said Silver, pointing off to the southeast. I looked over to see the top of the Death Egg burst through the cloud layer, gaining more altitude by the second. I squinted as hard as I could, and I thought I saw two glowing figures go up by the nose. It had to have been Sonic and Tails. But I also saw another slightly darker glow suddenly appear in the dark gray hull of the battle station. That had to have been Metal Sonic, still powered by the miniature Master Emerald.

"Silver, are there any other things you can detect besides Metal Sonic and the Death Egg?" I asked.

"Yeah. I can detect two other objects that are radiating power that's off my charts," said Silver. I sighed. That was them all right. I just wish I could warn them that Metal Sonic was coming, and this time, the robot would be on even grounds with them.

END OF CHAPTER 12


	13. Death Egg

****

Chapter 13

Death Egg

"So how do we take this thing down?" asked Tails as he and Sonic, now decharged, walked along one of the thousands of corridors that made up the inside of the Death Egg. Sonic shook his head as they continued to walk.

"I'm not sure Tails. This thing is so huge. I don't even think as Hyper Sonic I could take down this whole thing," said Sonic. The four flickies, perched on top of Tails head, began to speak to each other in their own language of tweets. Tails looked up at the flickies wondering what they were saying. As if they knew what he was thinking, the biggest flicky looked down at the two Mobians.

"We think there might be a way to stop this thing," it said. Sonic looked over to the flicky, ready to hear what it had to say. "If we can cause an overload in the power core, it just might be enough to cause the whole reactor to explode, and it would take the whole station with it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Sonic. As he turned around, the flicky flew off of Tails head and flew in front of Sonic.

"But you don't understand. In order to cause such an overload, it would require a tremendous amount of power, which we don't have," it said.

"So how do we destroy it then?" asked Sonic. The flicky hovered for a few seconds, as if thinking.

"If we can breach the core, that might cause the overload in the system that we need. The problem is that the core might be shielded against your attacks. This Robotnik guy sounds like he has that kind of technology at his disposal," said the flicky. Sonic sighed. The flicky was probably right. Robotnik would have made sure ahead of time that the core would be protected against his spindash, and he was sure it would also be insulated from electrocution.

"Well, it's still the best plan we have to go on. We'll improvise as we need to," said Sonic. They started walking along again, but as they turned a corner, a floating robot with a spiked ball swinging around underneath it spotted them. Sonic saw it at the same time, and yanked Tails out of the way as it swung the spiked ball at them, just barely missing them.

"Great. They know we're here," said Sonic as he leaped back around the corner and spindashed the robot before it could swing its ball again. The robot fell to the ground, a huge gash cut in its side, wires smoking. "Come on." Tails ran out and followed Sonic, the flickies still perched on his head.

**********

"How does this keep happening?" shouted Robotnik as he watched the monitor of where the security measures had been activated. He saw Sonic whiz by on the screen, followed closely by Tails, with two Swatbots giving pursuit. He walked over to the control console and started typing in commands. All over the battle station, alarms started to sound as the entire station was alerted to the presence of intruders. Robotnik looked back at the monitor, which now showed Sonic dodging a blast from a Swatbot, while Tails was flying above the line of fire. "This time Sonic, you won't get away."

**********

"Could things get any worse?" asked Tails as he and Sonic rounded another corner, a laser blast exploding against the wall behind them.

"Yeah. We could be sucked out into space," said Sonic. They rounded another corner, another door opening as more Swatbots poured out into the narrow corridor. Sonic didn't even slow down as he spindashed through them, knocking them to the ground as he and Tails shot past.

"So what's the plan now?" asked Tails. Sonic looked over his shoulder, seeing the Swatbots fall behind as they tried to climb over their fallen comrades.

"Run for now. There's got to be somewhere where we can take a quick rest," said Sonic as he rounded another corner, which lead straight into a giant hanger filled with all kinds of robotic jets and planes. Sonic reached over and slapped the door control shut. He listened with his ear against the door as he heard the sound of metal striking metal as the Swatbots, not realizing how close their target was, continued to run further into the station, totally passing the room they were in.

"Well, I think we lost them for a little while," said Sonic as he took his ear off the door.

"That's good. I was getting tired," said Tails. They started walking through the hanger, which looked like it was large enough to actually allow a plane to fly around inside it, looking at all the various jets that were armed to the teeth with weapons.

"Man. Looks like Robotnik's planning an invasion force," said Sonic as he ran his hands on the hull of one of the machines. He looked over to see Tails with his head down in one of the cockpits, looking at all the various controls.

"These things are complicated," said Tails as he took his head out of the cockpit. "They seem to be remote jets, probably hooked up to the Death Egg's computer system." 

"So Robotnik can control these things from inside the Death Egg without having to leave it," said Sonic. All of a sudden, the plane they were examining shuddered. Sonic and Tails jumped back as the plane's engine fired, fire blazing from the back end as it turned towards them.

"What on Mobius…" cried Sonic as the jet started to spray the area with bullets. Sonic grabbed Tails and ran out of the way as the shots bounced off the floor, ricocheting around the room.

"Robotnik must have found us!" cried Tails as the plane sped away from them, taking off in the hanger. While the hanger wasn't really made to allow planes to fight inside it, it was still big enough to accommodate the small plane enough room to fly around and do evasive maneuvers.

"Stay here, Tails. This one's mine," said Sonic as he ran out into the middle of the hanger as the plane turned around to head back towards him. "Hey Robotnik! If you can hear me, I must say that that plane's the ugliest thing I've seen." As if it was answering, the plane shot off more rounds of ammo at Sonic, who easily ran out of their way as the plane flew by overhead. The plane turned around, this time arming both of its laser cannons on its wings. Sonic, thinking that it was going to shoot at him again with bullets, watched the jet turn around and head back towards him. He then leaped to the side to avoid the bullets. But unfortunately for Sonic, that maneuver put him right in the way of one of the laser cannons. He realized all too late his mistake as the laser struck him in the left leg and he fell to the floor, pain shooting through his left leg.

"Sonic!" cried Tails as he saw Sonic go down. Thinking fast, he took the Chaos Emeralds from his pack and struck them together, his color flashing to a glowing yellow, the Power Flickies' yellow color returning with a rush. By now, the plane had turned around again and was within seconds of blasting Sonic. Tails flew out and scooped Sonic up off the floor as the plane fired again, charring the floor where Sonic had been only a split second ago.

"Get that thing!" Tails cried to the flickies. They each nodded and flew up at the jet. The jet, its radar too under-powered to pick up the small birds, was caught completely by surprise as the tiny super charged birds flung themselves into the jet's front end. The engine whined as the flickies invincibility flooded the jet's systems. The little birds then grasped onto the tail of the jet with their talons, hanging on as their invincibility overloaded the jet. The engine coughed once, then died as the jet started to spin wildly out of control. The flickies let go and watched as the plane flew down and exploded into several other planes, causing them to explode as well. They then returned to Tails.

"Sonic! Are you okay Sonic," cried Tails as Sonic slowly sat up. He cringed as a wave of pain shot through his leg. "Don't move too much." Sonic, although in extreme pain, managed to sit up in a full sitting position.

"Well, that wasn't very smart," said Sonic, smiling weakly.

"Neither was your choice in coming in here, hedgehog," said a familiar voice. Sonic turned his head around to see Metal Sonic standing on the other end of the hanger. He was decharged now, his hull back to its normal blue. "You are quite the nuisance, you know that?" Sonic tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't hold his weight. He might not have been able to run or even stand, but he still hadn't lost his attitude towards the Mecha bot.

"What can I say? I'm just that kind of hedgehog," said Sonic. Metal Sonic shook his head as he started walking towards the two of them.

"Always the cocky one, even to the end," said Metal Sonic. Sonic merely shrugged. "Well, in a few minutes, your cocky attitude will be no more." Metal Sonic then saw Tails standing behind Sonic, his fur glowing yellow with four birds flying around him, and Mecha stopped. Tails smiled slowly as he took a step forward, the four flickies stopping their orbit to fly with a pair of themselves on either side of Tails head, looking Metal Sonic right in his robotic eyes.

"You know Metal Sonic," said Tails as he placed his hands on his hips. "You are nothing but an overgrown toaster with an attitude." Tails then pointed towards Mecha, signaling the four flickies to attack. They took off towards Metal Sonic, slamming their bodies into the blue robot, forcing him to retreat backwards from the assault. Tails, in the meantime, lifted Sonic to his feet.

"Come on. The flickies can keep him back for a short time, but he'll eventually get by them," said Tails. Sonic could only nod as another wave of pain shot through his leg. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tight, but motioned with his hand for Tails to stark running. A look of worry passed over Tails face, but he nodded and started to run slowly, Sonic barely able to keep up.

"Get off me you little feather dusters!" cried Metal Sonic as he swatted one of the flickies, shocking himself in the process. While the little things didn't possess as much shocking power as Sonic or Tails did, it was still enough to cause Metal Sonic pain as he was driven further back into the hanger. He didn't have time for this. Firing his engine, Metal Sonic shot forward, blasting past the four flickies and out of the hanger as they followed. When he got out into the corridor, he couldn't see Sonic and Tails, either visually or electronically. He cursed under his breath. The blasted birds had shorted out his radar system. He looked back to see the four flickies flying right at him, trying to get in a few more blows. Suddenly, the entire gravity of the battle station reversed, causing Metal Sonic and the flickies to go flying into the ceiling upside-down. Metal Sonic sat right side up, as did the flickies. But then the gravity suddenly switched back, causing all five of them to crash to the floor again. The four flickies were up first, but Metal Sonic was able to roll into a transport tube and was carried up ten floors to the command room.

"What was that all about!?" snapped Robotnik as Metal Sonic stepped out of the tube. Mecha shook his head at the question.

"I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that Sssonic was messing around with the gravitational controls," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik fumbled with his mustache, then turned to a sound of a beeping monitor. He reached over and pushed a button. A picture of a Techbot appeared on the screen. It saluted to him.

"Sir. The Master Emerald has been installed like you ordered. Your newest machine is ready to go," said the Techbot.

"Excellent. I will be there shortly," said Robotnik, turning off the monitor. He turned back to Metal Sonic. "This time, that hedgehog is ours."

**********

"You can stop now Tails. Mecha isn't following us," said Sonic as he limped along beside Tails. Tails stopped and let go of Sonic, who slumped down against a wall. "That was good thinking little bud." He looked over at Tails, who was looking at a control panel.

"Hey. What's this switch do?" asked Tails as he flipped a switch on the panel. Suddenly, their whole world was upside down as the gravity shifted into reverse. Sonic fell on his head, as did Tails. It didn't hurt Tails since he was still super, but Sonic got a fairly good sized bump on his head. "Sorry," said Tails as he flew down and flipped the switch back again, this time catching Sonic as he fell.

"Please don't touch that again," said Sonic, rubbing his head.

"Hey! Here come the flickies," said Tails as he saw the four flickies round a corner and fly up to him. "Did you guys get him good?"

"We were able to keep him busy, but I don't think we caused too much damage," said the lead flicky. Another flicky perched itself on a railing in between Sonic and Tails.

"I sense the presence of the Master Emerald real close by," it said. Sonic and Tails both jerked their heads up as they heard this.

"Really!? Where?" asked Sonic.

"Down this corridor and through that door, I think. At least that is where I can sense the Master Emerald's power coming from," said the flicky.

"Well, let's get going!" said Sonic as he stood up, instantly stumbling back to the floor in pain as he stepped onto his injured leg.

"Sonic. You're going to have to go hyper. You can't take on whatever is guarding the Master Emerald like this," said Tails. Sonic sighed and nodded. He had hoped he wouldn't have to use the supers up here, but Tails was right. He was in no shape to fight without them. He pulled them out of his pack and smacked them together, his quills bursting into a rainbow of flashing colors as the energy stars circled his body, some hitting the ground and disappearing with a hiss.

"All right. Let's go get the Master Emerald back," said Sonic as he and Tails walked down to the door that the flicky had indicated. Sonic opened the door and peered inside. It was another hanger, even larger than the one that housed the jets. There were a few Swatbots walking around, their weapons at their sides. They obviously weren't paying all that much attention. This worried Sonic. If the Master Emerald was in this room, why would there be so few guards? He shook of the thought and burst through the door, Tails right behind him.

"Hedgehog. Priority One," said the Swatbots in union as Sonic slammed headfirst into three of them gathered close together. Tails and the flickies went after a pair of Swatbots that were trying to shot them down out of the air. But Tails tackled one to the floor and held on, shorting it out, while the flickies corkscrewed through the other one. Within thirty seconds, all the Swatbots were either destroyed or off-line.

"Well, that was easy," said Tails. Sonic nodded slowly as he looked at the hanger door.

"Yeah…A little too easy," he said. Suddenly, giant spotlights shimmered to life, aimed up at something. Sonic and Tails turned around to see two giant metal feet sticking out at them. They both flew back a few meters and looked up.

"By the gods of Mobius…" said Tails, his eyes wide with terror.

"You sure said it," said Sonic. Standing before them was a giant robotic version of Robotnik. It had to be over ten stories tall! Sonic and Tails just stared at it, too awe struck to move. Then Sonic's hawk-like vision saw him and he gritted his teeth. In the cockpit of the monstrous machine was none other than Robotnik himself.

"Hello Sonic," boomed Robotnik's voice over the robot's speaker system. "I'm so glad you're here to witness my greatest victory ever." Laughter was heard after this, and Sonic took a step forward.

"What makes you think we won't stop you Robotnik?" asked Sonic. The giant robot lifted its left foot and slowly moved it over the heads of Sonic and Tails. They both flew back and out from underneath the foot as it impacted the floor, causing the whole station to vibrate slightly.

"You foolish hedgehog. There is no way you can stop this machine. I designed it to be able to withstand your little buzz saw attack. And it cannot be electrocuted," said Robotnik's voice. Sonic didn't believe a word of it. He shot forward, aimed right at the chest area of the giant robot. He curled up into a spindash and struck it squarely. But the giant robot didn't even flinch. Not even a dent was put in it. Sonic stared with disbelief. Could it be possible that even as Hyper Sonic he was no match for this thing? He suddenly caught some kind of movement out of the corner of his eye and dodged to the left, just missing a swing from one of the giant hands. Tails flew up next to him.

"Any ideas Sonic?" he asked hopefully. Sonic nodded.

"I have one. I'm going to try and break through the cockpit window. I might be able to do it," he said as he flew up and stopped in front of the face. He could see Robotnik in the cockpit, shaking with laughter. Sonic clenched his fists together and shot forward in a spindash right at the cockpit window. He slammed full force into the window, but it held strong against him. Suddenly, a blast of fire came from the nose, knocking him back. He was shaken, but unharmed as he floated back to look the thing over. There had to be a weak spot somewhere on it. But he didn't see any.

"Tails, any ideas yourself?" asked Sonic as Tails flew up next to him. Tails just shook his head, but one of the flickies flew forward.

"Yes. I have one," it said. "I figured out where the Master Emerald is being kept. It's inside that giant robot. I can feel its power being used to power the machine. If you are able to get it out from inside, it won't be able to run." Sonic shook his head.

"But how do I get to the emerald if I can't break through its hull?" asked Sonic.

"Sonic! Look!" cried Tails. Sonic turned to see that the mouth of the robot was opening. And there it was. Glowing brightly inside the mouth was the Master Emerald.

"All right!" said Sonic as he started to fly towards it. But he suddenly changed his mind as he saw what it was attached to. "Get back and grab onto something!" he cried. He dove down, Tails and the flickies following as the robot fired a giant laser beam from its mouth. Sonic grabbed onto a thick metal pipe and held on, grabbing Tails hand as he flew down next to him. The laser beam cut through the hull of the Death Egg like a hot knife through butter, blasting a gapping hole in the hanger door.

The air suddenly gushed forth out of the hole and into space. Sonic held on for dear life as the vacuum of space filled the hanger. Sonic found out right then that the supers had the power to allow him to breath no matter where he was, but Tails wasn't so lucky. The Chaos Emeralds only partially protected him from the effects of the vacuum. The air was ripped from his lungs as he went limp in Sonic's hand. Sonic looked down to see the now unconscious Tails in his hand.

"Tails? Tails!?" cried Sonic. He then saw the four flickies fly down to them, chirping like crazy.

"We must help," said one of them.

"Yes. Let us combine our strength," said another one. Sonic watched as the four flickies started to orbit Tails' head, spinning faster and faster as they went. Sonic then noticed that a faint blue glow was surrounding Tails. Slowly, the young fox opened his eyes and let out a gagging cough.

"Tails!? Are you all right?" asked Sonic. Tails looked up at him weakly and nodded.

"I'm okay," he said. He then looked at the flickies. "Thank you."  
"You are welcome, Tails," said one of them. By now, all the air had flooded out of the hanger, leaving only the vacuum of space left. Sonic and Tails flew back up to the head of the robot. Sonic saw Robotnik cursing to himself over blowing a hole in his own battle station without even hitting Sonic.

"Hey Robotnik!" shouted Sonic. Amazingly, Sonic was able to hear himself, as was Tails and Robotnik. Another thing about the emeralds was their ability to allow you to talk in vacuum. "I bet you couldn't hit me with the broad side of this station with the at beam of yours!" Sonic saw Robotnik shake his fists at him, then turn the robot towards him. Sonic floated along slowly, letting the robot track him as he made it do a complete 180 in the hanger. He then stopped moving. He then waved to Robotnik, and the mouth of the robot opened up again as the beam started to power up. Still Sonic floated in place, watching the beam charge. The beam fired, and Sonic dodged it at the last possible second. The beam blasted through the heart of the battle station, slamming into the power core, causing it to explode. Sonic shot forward into the mouth of the robot. Shrapnel flew from the mouth as Sonic blasted out of the back end, carrying in his arms the Master Emerald. The robot's electronics died as the emerald's power vanished.

"Score one for the good guys," said Sonic as he landed next to Tails, placing the Master Emerald onto the deck.

"And score one for me," said the voice of Metal Sonic, his built in systems allowing him to communicate in the vacuum. Sonic and Tails turned to see Metal Sonic standing in the door way of the hanger, his arms across his chest.

"So, you want to try your luck against me, Mecha?" asked Sonic, taking a step forward.

"Yes. As a matter of fact I do. And I have something here that will even the odds," said Metal Sonic, raising his hands into the air. Sonic's mouth hung open as he realized what Metal Sonic was talking about. In Mecha's left hand was the miniature Master Emerald. "Now the ball is in my court, Sssonic." With that, Metal Sonic struck his other hand against the glassy surface of the emerald. Light flooded the hanger as Metal Sonic's blue hull changed to a glowing gold color, his pupils pulsating with red light.

"Tails. I'm going to need your help on this one," said Sonic. Tails nodded and flew up next to Sonic. Metal Sonic laughed evilly as he rose into the air, his engine giving off a golden glow. He shot straight at Sonic, claws out stretched to slash him. But Sonic dodged to the left and kicked his foot into Mecha's side. The robot was knocked a few feet down, but he quickly shot up. Tails ordered the four flickies to help out, and they went flying into Metal Sonic, but just bounced off harmlessly.

"This is stupid. We're all invincible. No one's going to win this fight," said Sonic under his breath. But little did Sonic know that Metal Sonic's intentions weren't to win. They were merely to keep the two Mobians' attention occupied. Metal Sonic took a quick glance to see Robotnik fly out of the head of the now dead robot inside a cargo craft. It moved noiselessly down, the vacuum making the engines give off no noise, as it scooped up the Master Emerald into its cargo bay. Then it turned and flew out of the hole created when the laser cannon had blasted through it. Metal Sonic turned his attention back to in time to dodge a spindash from him. He then flew up to the hole in the hanger and laughed.

"What's so funny, Mecha?" asked Sonic. Metal Sonic merely clapped his hand on the Master Emerald miniature, changing back to normal. He laughed again as he threw the miniature out the hole. Sonic gasped and shot forward to grab it, but it was too late. Sonic only caught a glimpse from the sun shining off the glassy surface as the miniature disappeared into the blue background of Mobius. Sonic turned back to Metal Sonic.

"What was the point in doing that?" cried Sonic. Metal Sonic laughed again.

"You foolish hedgehog. You don't even realize you've lost what you came here for," said Metal Sonic. Sonic suddenly realized what had happened. He turned around and looked at where he had left the Master Emerald on the deck. Only now, there was no emerald. Metal Sonic took his chance to escape to its full advantage and flew out of the hole and back towards Mobius.

"No!" cried Sonic as Tails flew up next to him. "How could I be stupid enough to let him get the Master Emerald twice!" Sonic turned to Tails, who noticed the fire burning in Sonic's eyes. "Tails. Take the flickies and go back to the island. I'm going after Robotnik." Tails nodded, then he and the flickies flew out of the hole and back towards Mobius. Suddenly, Sonic's attention was turned to the center of the Death Egg as the damaged power core blew. A fireball of immense proportions shot through the entire battle station. Sonic quickly flew up and out of the hole as the fireball raced through the hanger, burning everything in sight.

"Man that was close," said Sonic as he flew away from the dying station as fast as he could. When he was a safe distance away from the Death Egg, he turned around just in time to see it explode from the inside out, molten metal fragments flying in all directions, quickly freezing in the cold of space into shapeless forms of twisted metal. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. Mobius would be safe now that the Death Egg was destroyed. But he still had one job left to do, and he wasn't going to stop until it was done. His eyes were scanning space when he spotted the one thing he was after. Robotnik's ship, making a getaway with the Master Emerald.

"This is it Robotnik," said Sonic under his breath as he looked down slightly, keeping his eyes on the speeding cargo craft. "This time, you won't get away from me. Even if I have to chase you to the ends of Mobius and back."

END OF CHAPTER 13


	14. Doomsday & Epilogue

****

Chapter 14

Doomsday & Epilogue

"Hey! What's that?" asked Silver as he looked up at the mid day sky. We had returned to the edge of the beach where the Tornado was parked on Floating Island, which was now resting on the surface of the water. I had been a little apprehensive about returning, but for some odd reason, the island didn't seem to be sinking, so I had decided it was okay. I looked up and saw what looked like a shooting star coming right for the island. I squinted, trying to better make out the falling object.

"I'm not sure," I said. We both watched as the object grew closer, and it was then I noticed that there were four smaller flaming objects falling along with the bigger one. "Wait a sec. That's Tails and the flickies!" I cried. Silver looked up and watched as the five objects fell down almost into the ocean, shining brightly as they flew over to us and landed.

"Hey Knuckles," said Tails as he reached out and clapped two emeralds together, decharging himself and the flickies. 

"What happened? Where's Sonic?" I asked. Tails turned and looked up to the sky.

"He's up there somewhere, chasing down Robotnik," said Tails.

"What do you mean?" asked Silver.

"Robotnik escaped the Death Egg with the Master Emerald. Sonic went after him and I came back down here," said Tails. I looked up to the sky. Now the fate of the Master Emerald rested in the hands of Sonic. All we could do now was hope…

**********

Hyper Sonic spindashed through another meteor as he chased after the fleeing cargo ship. The appearance of the meteor field had taken Sonic by surprise. One minute, clear space, the next, total chaos. But even meteors couldn't stop Sonic from chasing Robotnik. His anger with Robotnik fueled him to push forward, ignore everything else around him. Sonic shot through another meteor and out into open space, the cargo ship now a good distance ahead of him. But Sonic flung his arms and legs behind him, shooting forward at an incredible speed.

"This time, Robotnik. You are mine," said Sonic to himself as he flew up along side the fleeing ship. He could see Robotnik at the controls, watching him. Sonic flew over and grabbed onto the ship, sending his invincibility flowing into the crafts fragile circuitry. The engines whined silently in the vacuum as they started to short out. But before they could, Sonic was suddenly blown off the ship. He tumbled back over a hundred feet before he could regain his sense of balance.

Sonic looked back to see two missiles heading towards him. Sonic then realized he had never heard them launch, the vacuum of space allowing no sound to be heard from the missiles launching. A smile worked its way onto Sonic's face as an idea came to mind. He shot towards the ship's engines, the two missiles following in his wake. He looked over his shoulder as the two missiles flew at him. Then, just before they hit him, Sonic flew up and out of the way. The missiles, while still able to rack Sonic, weren't as maneuverable, and they slammed into the engines, the whole back side of the craft exploding into flames as the atmosphere of the ship was sucked out into space. Sonic flew back and watched, waiting to see the Master Emerald drop from the cargo bay. But instead, a much smaller version of the Robotnik robot flew out of the bay, clutching the Master Emerald to its chest.

"You just don't know when to give up, do you Robotnik?" said Sonic to himself as he flew after the robot. He was almost to it when it shot several missiles at him, blowing up in his face to knock him back several hundred feet. Sonic regained his balance and shot forward. Now he was mad. Robotnik had pushed him over the edge. He had caused a load of misery to Knuckles, caused Floating Island to crash into the sea, stole the Master Emerald, and had even shot him in the leg back on the Death Egg!

Sonic had had enough. He curled into a spindash and crashed his glowing body into the machine, causing it to crumple inward from the blow. But Sonic didn't stop. He repeatedly spindashed into the robot all over, putting huge dents in it. He didn't care about electrocuting it anymore. He only wanted to smash that thing until it was unrecognizable. With one final spindash, Sonic smashed through the midsection of the robot, the whole body going limp as it lost power. It then let go of the Master Emerald and started to float off into space. Sonic flew over and grabbed the giant gem, watching with cold hatred as the robot floated away. Sonic sighed, exhausted from all that had happened. He grasped the Master Emerald and started back towards Mobius, not noticing the head of the robot detach from the main body, a rocket booster on it firing, taking it back towards Mobius.

**********

"Look!" cried Silver as he watched the sky. Tails and I followed his gaze to see a bright flash of light falling from the sky.

"It's Sonic!" cried Tails. I smiled. Sonic must have done it. Tails suddenly ran out of my view. I turned my gaze to see him climbing into the Tornado.

"What are you doing?" I asked as Tails donned his scarf and cap.

"I'm going to get Sonic. He has to be exhausted after all that. I know I was just fighting that huge robot," said Tails as he started the bi-plane. It slowly rolled along the beach, picking up speed as it took off. Silver and I watched as the small booster on the under side fired, propelling the small plane forward towards where the bright light was falling.

**********

Sonic could barely keep his eyes open as he flew down into the atmosphere of Mobius, he was so tired from all the action. But he still held onto the Master Emerald, feeling its power pulse around him. He fell down a few more minutes, wondering if the island had sunk by now, when he spotted a small spot of red flying just above the surface of the ocean. Realizing what it was, he flew towards it. He flew down along side the Tornado, then pulled up and placed the Master Emerald on the wing, slipping his feet into the harnesses as he looked down at Tails, who looked back up at him.

"Way to go Sonic!" cried Tails. Sonic was too tired to say anything, so he just gave Tails a thumbs up as the Tornado flew back towards Floating Island, which Sonic saw was still resting on top of the ocean, looking like a normal island if one didn't know that it normally floated.

**********

Silver and I watched as the Tornado returned, this time sporting a very tired looking Sonic and the brilliant glow of the Master Emerald resting on the wing.

"He did it," said Silver. I looked over at the robotic hedgehog, smiled and shook my head.

"No. They did it together," I said. Silver looked over at me, and nodded with a smile. The Tornado flew by overhead, and I saw Tails waving at us to go inland. Silver picked me up from behind and took to the air, following after the bi-plane as it prepared to land in a region of Marble Gardens. We landed next to some of the ruins, watching as the Tornado landed gracefully on a stretch of open land. I ran over to it, Silver right behind me. Sonic flew off the plane and placed the Master Emerald on the ground. I immediately went to the jewel, looking it over from top to bottom.

"Hey Knux. I've got some bad news," said Sonic. I looked over at him. What had happened? Was the Master Emerald okay? Sonic looked down as he spoke. "Mecha had the miniature Master Emerald with him. He went super and distracted us. Then he threw it out of the Death Egg . I tried to get it, but I wasn't fast enough." I noticed how defeated he looked, even after getting the actual Master Emerald back. I walked over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. Sonic looked up at me.

"It's okay Sonic. I only really used the miniature to steer the island. I can easily do that with a piece of the Master Emerald. All I need to do it just cut the pointed tip off it. I can steer the island with that and still keep the island aloft," I said. Sonic smiled as he sat on the ground. Not even bothering to decharge himself, he leaned over onto a patch of grass and fell asleep within twenty seconds.

"Poor guy. He's exhausted," said Silver. I nodded.

"Yeah. He put up one major fight today. Let's let him rest," I said as we quietly walked away. For the next four hours, we just sat and talked about the last three days' events. I sat there at one point, thinking about that mural in Hidden Palace. It was then that it hit me why I felt a connection with it. That wasn't just any mural. It was one that was accounting what had happened today. Robotnik represented the dark giant figure. I was the red figure, Sonic the blue, and Tails the yellow. And the jewel was the Master Emerald. I had always heard that some of my clan were able to tell the future, but I had never actually believed that, until now. Just as it was getting dark out, four figures walked up to us.

"Hey Tails. Long time no see," said one voice. We all turned around to see a crocodile, a honeybee, an armadillo, and a chameleon looking at us.

"Vector! Charmy! Mighty! Espio!" cried Tails as he leaped off the grass and ran up to them. I looked over at Silver, who just shrugged. We both stood up and walked over to where Tails was talking with the four Mobians.

"Who's your friends?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You guys haven't met one another. Knuckles, Silver, let me introduce you to Vector, Espio, Mighty, and Charmy. They're friends of me and Sonic," said Tails. I shook the crocodile's hand. He just gave me a smirk.

"So your this Knuckles guy these two were talking about," said Vector. I nodded. "I see you made up with them."

"Yeah. We've made amends," I said. I liked this croc. He had an attitude about him that was nice. But something bothered me.

"How did you get here anyway?" I asked.

"Been here for over a month," said Charmy, flying up next to Vector. I was shocked. These two had been here that long and I had never know.

"Me and Mighty here came onto the island while it was over Launch Base," said Espio, looking around the ruins. "You have a very nice island."

"Thanks," I said. There was something about these four, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. I liked these guys. It was then I realized I had seen the armadillo and the chameleon before. "Hey! You two were the ones I met at Launch Base!" I cried.

"I was wondering if you'd recognize us or not," said Mighty.

"Yeah. I thought you had forgot us," said Espio. Suddenly, a groaning sound caught their attention. The six of them turned to see Sonic, still hyper, sit up and rub his eyes.

"Well well. Look who's here," said Vector as they started back towards Sonic. Sonic looked up suddenly at the familiar voice. He turned to see all the new friends he had made in the course of the last three days standing in front of him.

"Hi guys!" said Sonic as he got to his feet. Mighty then got a good look at Sonic's left leg.

"Oh Sonic. You shouldn't be standing on that leg!" cried Mighty. Sonic looked down, remembering that he had been shot there. He had totally forgotten it when he had gone hyper earlier that day.

"Oh man. That's going to sting when I decharge," said Sonic. Mighty knelt down and looked at his leg.

"Knuckles. Do any Podicun Berries grow on this island?" asked Mighty. I had to think about that for a sec. I hadn't heard of those berries in years. But I did remember the name. I nodded. "Good. Go and get some. They'll help him heal faster." He looked back down at the leg. "We'll have to make a splint for it." Over the next twenty minutes, we patched Sonic's leg up good. Then, after another ten minutes of persuasion, he decharged himself, the glow fading from his body as he became normal again. He closed his eyes in dicomfort, ut he quickly shook off the pain. He started to say something when suddenly, his, Tails, and Silver's heads jerked up right for just a second, then they each shook their heads at the same time.

"What's wrong?" asked Charmy.

"What do you mean?" asked Sonic. We looked at each other, then back at the trio.

"Why did you just do that little movement with your heads?" I asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Knux," said Sonic. I just shook my head. Probably some joke on their part.

"Well, now what do we do?" asked Tails.

"I guess we head back. Sal's probably out of her mind with worry, as is probably the rest of Knothole," said Sonic. The Power Flickies, who up to this point had been completely silent ever since Tails had left the Death Egg, suddenly started chirping.

"I'm sorry, Tails. We must return to our dimension, and you will have to give up the Chaos Emeralds," said one of the small birds. All of us turned towards the four flickies.

"Why?" asked Tails.

"We have served our purpose in protecting you. The Chaos Emeralds have served their purpose for now, and they must be released into the world again," said another flicky.

"Hold up," said Sonic as he walked up to the four birds. "You mean we spent all that time collecting them to only use them once and then lose them?"

"I am sorry Sonic. The Chaos Emeralds' purpose at this time was to release the Super Emeralds power. They have done that, and now they must be scattered," said the flicky. With that, the four birds took flight, taking an emerald in each of their talons, the smallest one taking only one. The four birds flew up into the night sky, the glow of the emeralds showing where they were. Then there was a bright flash of light as the emeralds scattered off in seven directions. But for some reason, the dark blue glow headed right back towards. The smallest flicky was still clutching onto the blue Chaos Emerald as it landed in Tails' hands.

"Young master. I have managed to save one emerald for you. Watch it with care, and don't let it fall into evil hands," said the flicky as it winked out of this dimensional plane.

"Well, at least we're not going home empty handed," said Sonic as he held up the supers. I snapped my fingers as a thought came to my mind. I ran into one of the nearby ruins, and ran out a minute later with a belt that had been handed down in my family for years.

"Here Sonic. Give me the supers," I said. Sonic handed them over to me. I placed each of the glowing gems into seven areas on the front of the belt where other jewels were probably embedded in it at some point. I then handed it back to Sonic. "Put it one." Sonic put on the belt, and as soon as he clasped the buckle, the whole belt disappeared.

"Where'd it go!" cried Tails. I smiled.

"It's still there. It's just invisible. You can see it, right Sonic?" I asked.

"Yeah. I can see it," said Sonic.

"Try using them," I said. Sonic crossed his arms over the belt, then he snapped erect as the supers lit up, his fur and quills glowing in a rainbow of seven colors as he became hyper again.

"What is this belt?" asked Sonic.

"I'm not sure what it's made out of, but it was made by my ancestors to provide an easy way to carry the super miniatures if anyone ever had them. One of my family members acquired it at some point, and now I'm giving it to you. Call it a peace offering," I said with a smile. Sonic smiled.

"Thanks Knux. Say, why don't you come back with us? We could sure use you in the Freedom Fighters," said Sonic. This caught me off-guard. I hadn't planned to be asked that question.

"Well…I'm not sure…I don't want to leave Floating Island all alone out here by itself," I said. I looked up to see Sonic motion with his head behind me. I turned around to see the four new Mobians standing there.

"I think you have yourself some people that wouldn't mind watching the place for you," said Sonic. Each one of the animals gave a nod. I didn't know what to say. Here I was three days ago, not a friend in the world. Now I had six new friends and new people to help me watch my home. I smiled.

"I think so too," said Knuckles. "And I know just the name to give this group."

"What's that?" asked Silver.

"The Chaotix. A name that was given to an elite team from my clan that watched the Master Emerald in the beginning years of our civilization here," I said.

"I like the name," said Vector. 

"Same here," said Mighty.

"The Chaotix it is," said Espio.

"Here here," said Charmy. I walked over to Sonic.

"I'll gladly join your cause. But I will come back here from time to time to check up on the place," I said. Sonic smiled and shook my hand.

"Good to have you on the team, Knuckles," said Sonic. He then flew up into the air. "Now come on. We need to get back before Sal gives me a serious yelling at." Everyone laughed as I went over to the Master Emerald and put it on its side.

"Hey Silver. Could you get this?" I asked.

"Sure thing," said Silver as he walked up to the emerald's tip. He extended his claws and cut off the top three inches of the tip. He handed it to me, and I put it in my shoe. I then turned to the Chaotix team.

"You guys can use one of my teleporters to get this thing back to Hidden Palace. All the teleporters around here are set to take you there and back. There should be one about a quarter a mile away from here in that direction," I said, pointing off to the southeast. The four Mobians walked over and, with a little bit of a strain, managed to lift the giant gem off the ground. They then walked off with it, vanishing into the dark night.

"Well, let's go!" I cried as I jumped onto the Tornado's wing. Tails climbed into the cockpit while Silver joined Sonic up in the air.

"All right! Next stop Knothole Village!" cried Sonic.

**********

"I must say sir, all things accounted for, you were extremely lucky," said Metal Sonic as he walked into the command room at Launch Base, a cup of hot chocolate and a foot warmer on a tray.

"Lucky? I would have been lucky if that infernal hedgehog had been killed. No, this wasn't lucky. This was just normal," said Robotnik, who was wrapped up to his head in blankets after nearly freezing in space from exposure to the cold.

"At least you are alive and able to continue your work," said Metal Sonic as he placed the tray next to his master.

"True," said Robotnik, sighing. "I can not wait to be back in Robotropolis again. I feel as though that is my only home now. These bases are good for small times away, but nothing beats the comforts of home." He reached over and took the cup of hot chocolate from the tray and sipped it, taking in its warmth.

****

****Epilogue****

"I wish you were still here, my dear friend. This world has so many things that I know you would have enjoyed," said Shadow to himself as he knelt before a wooden gravestone with the name Maria carved into the wood. "But because of me, you're not. If only I hadn't been brought into this world, you would still be alive and safe." Tears started forming in the black hedgehog's as he looked up at the night sky. All the stars were out on this clear night, but he was looking for one point of light in particular. He finally spotted it, wiped his eyes, then let out a sigh.

He had spent most of his life up there in space. But the events after he was brought down here had led him to cryogenic freezing, to freedom, to wandering for a year, to finding the green Chaos Emerald, and finally finding Sonic and the Freedom Fighters. He still hadn't run into any humans in person, as their numbers in the north had dropped drastically after the Great War. There were still a few colonies here and there in the north, but the bulk of the human population was situated in the south. In fact, he was on the exact same island where he had been frozen for 43 years. Now, four years after his escape, he had come back to pay his respects to the only friend he had from his past. He started to rise, but suddenly the sound of gunfire went flying through the thick jungle.

As quietly and as quickly as he could travel without being detected, he headed towards the source of the sound. After about a minute, he came upon the outer skirts of the military base where he had been frozen. From his hiding place behind a thick tropical plant, Shadow watched as a firing squad made up of twenty humans stood at attention. But what caught his eye was the people that were lying on the ground dead. The first person was a female human, and the other two were preteen male humans, probably her children.

All his mind could take in was seeing the now lifeless bodies of the woman and two children fall to the ground. At that moment, something from deep within his mind was unleashed. He saw not the children, but instead, the dying body of Maria , just having been shot, during the last few seconds he had remained in space before he had been launched in a capsule to Mobius. And it was with this thought that he snapped. He let out a cry out anguish so inhuman that every single member of the firing squad looked nervously around, scared to death that whatever the voice belonged to would attack them. And it did.

Shadow burst from the jungle, eyes like fire as he spindashed into the side of the nearest person, knocking him to the ground, the man dead even before he hit the ground. The rest of the men started running for their lives as the now deadly black hedgehog started spindashing into people left and right.

"You humans! You haven't changed at all! You will all be wiped clean from this planet!" shouted Shadow as he continued his rampage. After he had down the firing squad, he headed full speed towards the military complex itself, intent on killing everyone inside. The lieutenant was the only one still alive as Shadow raced towards the complex. Slowly, he pulled his radio off his belt, then lifted it up to his mouth.

"Dispatch…this is…Lieutenant Conway…come in," he called into the radio.

"What is it? What's going on?" asked Dispatch.

"Intruder alert…black Mobian hedgehog…entering complex…" with these last words, Lieutenant Conway collapsed to the ground, dead.

**********

"General Dryson!" cried an officer as he ran up to a military clad man about six feet in height.

"What is it, private?" asked Dryson as he turned around. The worry in the officer's face reflect the news he had to report.

"Sir, we have just received word that an unidentified black Mobian hedgehog has entered the complex. He has already take out one of our firing squads and three full squads of our combat robots," said the nervous officer. The general's eyes widened slightly.

"So, he has returned," said Dryson as he started walking at a fast pace towards the command center of the complex. Upon arriving, he waved the comm operator away from the mike. He then spoke clearly and calmly into it, sending his message throughout the whole base. "Attention all personnel. Intruder alert. Initiate Shadow Defense. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill." At this announcement, all the guards located in the Level 2 through 7 Security area retreated into the nearest hidden rooms, leaving the hallways completely void of life.

**********

Shadow raced through the Level 2 security area, not even giving notice of the absence of humans as he downed several more squads of robot guards. He was unstoppable, fueled by his anger and hatred of humans. He didn't care what happened to him, as long as he could find and destroy everything and everyone in the complex, and eventually the rest of the world. He was so engulfed in his fury that he didn't even notice the dozens of stun guns emerge from the walls and aim right at him. Then all the guns fired, each one sending sizzling electricity into Shadow's body. Shadow let out an inhuman scream as he fell to the ground, almost unconscious from the amount of electricity that had just coursed through him. He slowly rose to a kneeling position, and looked up right into the eyes of a tall male human in uniform.

"So, you have finally come back, Shadow," said the man. "You don't know how long we searched for you after your little escape four years ago. We figured you for dead." Shadow gritted his teeth as he tried to stand up. But he found that he couldn't, his legs feeling like gelatin from the electricity.

"Who are you?" asked Shadow.

"My name is not important, rodent. However, your return to your cryogenic capsule is," said the man, snapping his fingers. Two armed guards stepped forward and lifted Shadow to his feet. Shadow tried to break their grip, but he was too weak from the stun guns to get free. "Have his memory wiped clean of the last four years. I want him to remember nothing."

*You humans are never going to change. Even after 47 years you still hurt and kill those you see as inferior and even your own kind,* thought Shadow as he blacked out. Suddenly, he felt a cold metal bowl fall onto his head. He strained to look up, and saw that his was strapped into some kind of machine. *I must have been unconscious part of this time. I don't even remember getting here.*

"Now, erase his memory. He should know nothing of the outside world," said General Dryson. A technician typed a few commands into the control console of the machine, and it started up with a hum. Shadow could feel his memories of the last four years start to be ripped from his mind, forever erased.

*No! These humans won't take me without a fight!* thought Shadow as he tried to fight the machine. But it seemed that the more he fought the effects of the machine, the faster it drained his mind. After a few minutes of struggling, he suddenly realized he couldn't remember anything from before he joined the Freedom Fighters. Shadow suddenly opened his eyes. Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, and many other Mobians knew of his existence. And if they knew of him, then his mission to destroy all humans might be in danger. Shadow realized what he had to do. He closed his eyes again, concentrating hard as he called upon the last of the psychic power he had gained from the green Chaos Emerald. Concentrating on all those he had had contact with over the last four years, he unleashed a powerful psychic blast from his mind, its intent to erase the memories of his existence from all the people he had met since his release.

"Sir. The subject's brain pattern is giving off a strange reading," said one of the technicians.

"What do you mean?" asked Dryson. The technician turned to him, puzzlement evident on his face.

"I'm not sure, sir. But whatever was causing it is gone," said the technician.

"Ignore it. It was probably a computer glitch," said Dryson. Shadow opened his eyes. The last few months of his memory was all that remained. But he knew that his existence was once again safe from the outside world. A smile worked its way across his tan muzzle.

*The world may no longer know of my existence, but one of these days I will escape from here again. And when I do, humans everywhere will pay for what they have done,* thought Shadow, even as his memory of what he had seen outside vanished from his mind, leaving only the feeling of revenge left.

THE END…?


End file.
